14. IUCN

 

IUCN is a membership union that is composed of government and civil society organisations. It is a global authority on the status of the natural world and safeguarding measures required to protect it.

 

The mission of IUCN is to influence, encourage and assist societies all over the world to conserve the integrity and diversity of nature, as well as to ensure that any use of natural resources is fair and ecologically sustainable.

 

Throughout its first decade, the IUCN's primary focus was to investigate the impact of human activities on nature. It raised awareness of pesticides' harmful impacts on biodiversity and encouraged environmental impact assessments.

 

In the \(1960s\) and \(1970s\), much of IUCN's work focused on protecting species and the habitats that are crucial for their survival. In \(1964\), IUCN established the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

 

In \(1980\), IUCN, in collaboration with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), published the World Conservation Strategy. It was a groundbreaking document that helped define the concept of "sustainable development" and shaped the global conservation and sustainable development agenda.

IUCN is best known for compiling and publishing the red list of threatened species that assesses species' conservation status worldwide. IUCN maintains a red data book.