IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources)

IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources)

IUCN is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. It provides public, private and non- governmental organizations with the knowledge to enable human progress, economic development and nature conservation to take place together. IUCN is the global authority on the status of the natural world and the measures needed to safeguard it.

Vision of IUCN

The vision of IUCN is ‘A just world that values and conserves nature’.

Mission of IUCN

The mission of IUCN is to influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve the integrity and diversity of nature and to ensure that any use of natural resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable. IUCN has widened its focus beyond conservation of ecology and now incorporates issues related to sustainable development in its projects. It tries to influence the actions of governments, business and other stakeholders by providing information and advice.

The organization is best known to the wider public for compiling and publishing the IUCN red list of threatened species, which assesses the conservation status of species worldwide.

India, a mega diverse country with only 2.4 % of world’s land area, accounts for 7-8% of all

recorded species. It includes over 45,000 species of plants and 91,000 species of animals. The country’s diverse physical features and climatic conditions have resulted in a variety of ecosystems such as forests, wetlands, grasslands, desert, coastal and marine ecosystems. Four of 34 globally identified biodiversity hotspots are found in India. They are:

·           The Himalayas

·           The Western ghats

·           The North-East

·           The Nicobar islands

India became state member of IUCN in 1969, through the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate change(MoEFCC). The following data for plants and animals in India is given in Table 6.2 available on the IUCN Red List Version 2017-3 (Table 6 A & B). It has been last updated on 5th December 2017.