The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), formerly the World Conservation Union, is a hybrid organization of states, state agencies, and nongovernmental organizations that facilitates and encourages the conservation and equitable use of nature and natural resources. It was founded in 1948 and has gone by several names in its history (recently reverting from the World Conservation Union to its former title, the International Union for Conservation of Nature). Its Secretariat is headquartered in Gland, Switzerland, but it has a staff of one thousand experts in sixty nations which coordinates several theme-based programs that focus on issues such as forests, gender, and business and biodiversity (Botterill, 2003). Under the IUCN are six Commissions, the most prominent being the Species Survival Commission, which updates the Red List of threatened species; the Commission on Environmental Law, which has facilitated negotiations on several conservation treaties; and the World Commission on Protected Areas. The IUCN is supported by over eleven thousand volunteer scientists in over 160 nations.

The IUCN position on climate change is that nations should reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2050; use ecosystem- based management to mitigate and adapt to warming; and prioritize efforts on behalf of vulnerable peoples and ecosystems. Its research and communications emphasize linkages between conservation, energy use, globalization, and climate change. Internally, much of this work is coordinated by its Climate Change Initiative (Axelrod, 2004).

In its role as an expert adviser, the IUCN has advised members to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Convention on Biological Diversity, and other agreements on climate change mitigation, adaptation, and impacts, inter alia. It has alerted parties to the UNFCCC that if global average temperature were to rise 2œ Celsius or more above preindustrial levels, massive extinctions and profound ecosystem changes would result.

As a complement to its Red Lists, the IUCN has calculated the number of species that are currently of favorable conservation status that would be endangered by global warming (for example, 51 percent of currently unthreatened corals could be endangered by climate change) (Axelrod, 2004).

The IUCN is one of the most prominent international organizations drawing attention to the linkages between warming, conservation, and human well-being. It assesses and promotes natural resource management practices that would aid mitigation and adaptation to global warming. For example, it advocates inclusion of REDD (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) in forthcoming climate agreements. In conjunction with other organizations, the IUCN has worked to mainstream issues that have been sidelined by the dominant discussion, such as the role of indigenous peoples in climate policy and the relationship between gender and natural resource use.

References

1. Axelrod, Regina S., David Leonard Downie, and Norman J. Vig, eds. The Global Environment: Institutions, Law, and Policy. 2d ed. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2004.

2. Botterill, Linda C., and Melanie Fisher, eds. Beyond Drought: People, Policy, and Perspectives. Collingwood, Vic.: CSIRO, 2003.

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