Story | 29 Oct, 2021
This International Black Sea Action Day, 31st October, 11 habitats of Red-List Endangered Black Sea harbour porpoises and bottlenose dolphins as well as Vulnerable Black Sea common dolphins have been formally awarded Important Marine Mammal Area (IMMA) status by the…
Story | 19 Oct, 2021
Marine Heatwaves: a serious threat to marine biodiversity and livelihoods
Back in 2011, extremely warm water temperatures persisting over thousands of kilometres along the coastline of Western Australia caused coral bleaching, mass die-out of marine life and wiped out kelp forests. Since then, this phenomenon of abnormally high-water temperatures has been recorded in…
Story | 13 Oct, 2021
Plankton are the superstars of the ocean and MAPMAKER is the tool that follows them
Without marine plankton our planet would be a different place. Future projections and impact metrics of plankton diversity around the world are now able to be seen graphically through the MAPMAKER tool. MAPMAKER's new visualisation tools allow data-driven decision-making on marine biodiversity…
Story | 30 Jul, 2021
New IUCN report assesses potential for more geological World Heritage
Leading experts assess the potential for future inscriptions of geological World Heritage sites, in a new IUCN report launched today at UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee meeting.
Story | 19 Jul, 2021
Salonga National Park in DR Congo removed from World Heritage in Danger List
The World Heritage Committee today has decided to remove Salonga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo from the List of World Heritage in Danger. A mission carried out jointly by IUCN and UNESCO in 2020 reported significant improvements in the site’s conservation, but recommended…
Story | 01 Jul, 2021
A new paper, published today in Science, argues for an international legally binding agreement that addresses the entire life cycle of plastics, from extraction of raw materials to legacy plastic pollution. Three clear goals are proposed and encouraged, to address not only the well-known issue…
Story | 22 Jun, 2021
IUCN, the official advisor on nature to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, recommends adding four natural sites to the List of World Heritage in Danger: the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the W-Arly-Pendjari Complex in Benin, Burkina Faso and Niger, the Natural and Cultural Heritage of the…
Story | 04 Jun, 2021
IUCN recommends two biodiversity sites in Georgia and Japan for the World Heritage List
IUCN, the official advisor on nature to UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee, recommends two new inscriptions on the prestigious World Heritage List for sites in Georgia and Japan. Both places harbour a rich diversity of plant and animal species, many of which cannot be found anywhere else on Earth…
DG Statement | 21 May, 2021
IUCN Director General’s Statement for International Day for Biological Diversity
We mark this year's International Day for Biological Diversity at a time of upheaval, in the midst of a continuing pandemic, a fast-changing climate, with biodiversity in steep decline. At the same time, we know that halting biodiversity loss is possible, and that it can open the way to a more…
Press release | 19 May, 2021
World met target for protected area coverage on land, but quality must improve