Story | 12 Aug, 2021
Shrinking spaces for the world’s largest land animal
On World Elephant Day 2021, we celebrate the largest terrestrial animals on Earth and highlight the daunting challenges that these mammals face. Today, all three elephant species, the Asian Elephant (Elephas maximus), African Forest Elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) and African Savanna Elephant (…
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 | 14 Jul, 2021
Multi-stakeholder collaboration restores rare water onions in southern Thailand wetlands
From January to April 2021, the East Forum Foundation worked with over 300 community members, school children and government officials to collect seeds of the endemic water onion (Crinum thaianum), grow them in nurseries and outplant them in streams
Story | 13 Jul, 2021
IUCN has been working with UNHCR since 2018 to mitigate human-elephant conflict (HEC) around the refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar through Rohingya Elephant Response.
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 | 17 May, 2021
A tribute to Lee Merriam Talbot (1930 – 2021)
IUCN is deeply saddened by the passing of its former Director General, Lee Merriam Talbot. A lifelong conservation champion, Lee is remembered in the personal tribute below by Russell Mittermeier, Chief Conservation Officer at Re:wild (formerly Global Wildlife Conservation) and Chair of the IUCN…
Story | 23 Apr, 2021
The D.G. Khan Cement Case: Pakistan Judiciary Again Leads the Way
By Dr. Parvez Hassan, Chair Emeritus, WCEL - The D.G. Khan Cement case decided this month (April 2021) by the Supreme Court of Pakistan will resonate, like the 1994 Supreme Court decision in the Shehla Zia case, for a long time in the environmental jurisprudence of Pakistan and South Asia. The…
Story | 14 Apr, 2021
First the Rhino, now the Elephant, what is next?
Could the Rule of Law be the solution?
In line with the African black rhinoceros, the African forest elephant is now listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The significant population decline over the past decades is not only caused by the loss of…
Press release | 08 Apr, 2021
Transforming crop and timber production could reduce species extinction risk by 40%
Gland, Switzerland, 8 April 2021 (IUCN) – Ensuring sustainability of crop and timber production would mitigate the greatest drivers of terrestrial wildlife decline, responsible for 40% of the overall extinction risk of amphibians, birds and mammals, according to…
Press release | 25 Mar, 2021
African elephant species now Endangered and Critically Endangered - IUCN Red List
Gland, Switzerland, 25 March 2021 (IUCN) - Following population declines over several decades due to poaching for ivory and loss of habitat, the African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) is now listed as Critically Endangered and the African savanna elephant (Loxodonta …