IUCN and SSC

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The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is one of the oldest and largest international conservation networks and was formed in 1948. It is a membership union with over 1,400 member organizations including States, government agencies, NGOs, indigenous peoples’ organizations, scientific and academic institutions and business associations from over 160 countries.

The vision of the IUCN is a just world that values and conserves nature. They follow the mission 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.

The six commissions of the IUCN unite over 15,000 experts. The largest of these commissions is the Species Survival Commission (SSC). The SSC is a science-based network of more than 10,500 volunteer experts. The vision of the SSC is “a  just world that values and conserves nature through positive action to both prevent the loss and aid recovery of the diversity of life on earth." The SSC provides knowledge on the status and trends of species, develops policies and guidelines, facilitates conservation planning and catalyses conservation action.  The SSC comprises over 160 specialist groups. One of which is the IUCN SSC Cat Specialist Group.

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The IUCN and the SSC approach conservation by applying the Species Conservation Cycle with its three essential components ASSESS-PLAN-ACT (Fig. 1):

• Assess: Understand and inform the world about the status and trends of biodiversity

• Plan: Develop collaborative, inclusive and science-based conservation strategies, plans and policies

• Act: Convene and mobilise conservation actions to improve the status of biodiversity.

 

There are two additional components outside the cycle:

• Communicate: Drive strategic and targeted communication to enhance our conservation impact and

• Network: Enhance and support our immediate network and alliances to achieve our biodiversity targets.