Download Red List Training. Oct10

RED LIST TRAINING
The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Shell are collaborating on the world’s
most comprehensive inventory of extinction risk for species.
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ is a compilation of the global conservation status of species and is
based on the best available knowledge from the world’s leading experts. It is widely used to inform and
influence biodiversity conservation. The Red List assesses species’ global risk of extinction and monitors that
risk over time; each assessed species is catalogued with information on population size and trends, distribution,
ecology and habitat preferences, how it is used by people, ecosystem services, threats, and recommended
conservation actions.
Biodiversity provides the goods and services we all rely on, and its conservation is in our best interest.
Businesses can accomplish this through good land stewardship with sound management plans. The benefits
from effectively addressing operational threats to biodiversity include: cost savings through better risk
management; license to operate and quicker permitting; enhanced reputation; and access to capital and raw
materials. Businesses can use the information contained in the IUCN Red List to inform the conservation of
biodiversity, on-site. The IUCN Red List can be used to identify potential risks and opportunities early on and
support on-site management throughout the project life-cycle.
As the world’s most authoritative source of information on the conservation status of species, the IUCN Red
List is widely used in policy decisions that involve human activities, development, and business, so it is
imperative that its standard as an objective, non-politicized, and scientifically-based information source be
maintained. IUCN urgently needs to expand the coverage of the Red List as well as public understanding and
use of the data. Both assessors and users need to be trained to ensure that this source of objective biodiversity
data is appropriately utilized. A network of trained trainers must be established to meet this growing global need
for capacity-building.
To respond to these needs, IUCN and Shell are now launching a joint project with three main objectives:
1. to increase general understanding and use of the IUCN Red List, including training the business sector
in the Red List’s use and application;
2. to build IUCN’s capacity as a leader in biodiversity knowledge and training; and
3. to continue to grow and improve the IUCN Red List as the most authoritative source of biodiversity
data and a tool for objective monitoring.
Collaboration on Red List training between IUCN and Shell will aim to improve existing teaching
materials, develop new and innovative web-based materials, and expand the reach of the training programme to
enable specialists to carry out high-quality Red List assessments, resulting in the availability of more highquality biodiversity data.
IUCN and Shell signed a five-year agreement in 2007 to collaborate more effectively on conservation-related
projects.
For more information, contact: [email protected] and see IUCN Red List website (www.iucnredlist.org).