This section provides additional information on organizations and regulations mentioned in the main text of the manual: the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and its Red List of Threatened Species, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), and the American Zoo and Aquarium Association’s Species Survival Plans (SSPs).

Organizations that support primates

World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)
“Wanted Alive!: Great Apes in the Wild,” the WWF Species Status Report, for additional information. Copies of this booklet are available in the Volunteer Area of the Great Ape House and from the Volunteer Supervisor.

The World Conservation Union’s Red List
Taken directly from the IUCN web site, www.redlist.org

What is the World Conservation Union?
The World Conservation Union (IUCN) is one of the world's oldest international conservation organizations. It was established in Fontainebleau, France on October 5, 1948 as the "International Union for the Protection of Nature" of IUPN. Today it is a union of governments, government agencies, and non-governmental organizations working at the field and policy levels, together with scientists and experts, to protect nature.

IUCN is like a braid with three interconnected strands. One strand is the Union's membership. The second strand is made up of the commissions of expert volunteers that work with IUCN. The third strand is made up of the more than 820 Secretariat staff that work in IUCN's offices throughout the world.

Members: As a conservation organization, IUCN is unique in that it is a union of other organizations. It brings together:

  • 74 governments (such as the governments of the US, China, Japan, the UK, Brazil, Panama, Zimbabwe, Guinea-Bissau, etc.)
  • 105 government agencies (such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife in Kenya, the Chilean Forest Service, and the National Council for the Conservation of Wildlife in Pakistan)
  • More than 700 non-governmental organizations (ranging from Friends of the Earth and Wetlands International to the Wildlife Clubs of Uganda).

A full list of members is available on this site. Altogether the members of IUCN make up a global network of 895 institutions and organizations representing people from all walks of life, working together towards the common goal of nature conservation.

This membership allows the Union to work at all levels of the environmental debate, from the local and community level, to the national level, on up to the global level. It provides a forum within which all these players can come together on an equal footing and discuss vital conservation issues, thereby enabling them to better achieve the Union's mission.

Commissions
In addition to bringing together governments and non-governmental organizations, IUCN works with international networks of volunteer experts grouped together in six global commissions:

  • The Species Survival Commission
  • The World Commission on Protected Areas
  • The Commission on Education and Communication
  • The Commission on Environmental Law
  • The Commission on Ecosystem Management
  • The Commission on Environmental Economics and Social Policy

The Commissions' total membership of more than 8,000 technical, scientific and policy experts provide IUCN with cutting-edge information on the biological and social sciences that underpin conservation practice on the ground, and conservation policy at the national and global level.

These experts are among the foremost leaders in the field of conservation and sustainable use of renewable natural resources, with expertise ranging from oceans and environmental law to forests, protected area management, and environmental education. Access to this expertise makes IUCN one of the undisputed leaders in practical conservation worldwide.

The Secretariat
The work of the IUCN members and of the Commissions is coordinated at the global level by the Secretariat of IUCN. The Secretariat of IUCN is made up of more than 820 staff members working in more than 40 Regional and Country offices on a range of different key conservation issues. The Headquarters of IUCN is located in Gland, Switzerland, about 30 kilometers outside of Geneva. The Secretariat of IUCN works with the members of the Union, as well as its commissions, to carry out conservation in the field, and to analyze and communicate information on some of the main issues threatening our planet.

What Does It Do? (IUCN in action)
IUCN advises and assists governments, organizations and local communities in devising conservation strategies and in their implementation. Through its vast networks worldwide, IUCN helps the world share its hands-on conservation experience in a "cross-fertilization" of ideas that can often lead to innovative solutions to common problems. Its global outreach means that IUCN can help local conservation organizations learn from the experiences of their colleagues thousands of kilometers away and can even equip these groups with the tools necessary to achieve their conservation goals.

The Red List
The mission of the Species Survival Commission (SSC) is to conserve biological diversity by developing and executing programs to study, save, restore, and manage wisely species and their habitats.

With the help of the more than 7,000 scientists working in its SSC, IUCN has been publishing, since the 1960s, the “Red List of Threatened Species”. This is the most authoritative volume of its kind. Not only does it reflect the state of knowledge on the status of species worldwide, but it also sets the stage for future research in Species Conservation.

The “Red List” can be consulted online and contains a list of species assessed against strict criteria. These criteria establish the relative risk of extinction of these species, indicating which are “Extinct”, "Extinct in the Wild”, “Critically Endangered”, “Endangered”, “Vulnerable”, “Lower Risk”, or “Data Deficient.”

The compilation of this list represents years of hard work and is a tribute to the painstaking research of scientists in the field who are constantly keeping track of the status of particular species.

Governments and policy-makers often use the data contained in the Red List, and the Red List itself, when determining areas and species for priority conservation. The Red List also serves as the scientific basis for much of the conservation work being undertaken worldwide.

In order to help implement the conservation of these various species, the SSC follows up the Red List with "Action Plans" for particular taxonomic groups (from orchids to wild cats) which indicate the state of knowledge on this particular group, and make suggestions of the sorts of activities, research, and policy that is needed to achieve their conservation.

For information on how you can make a positive impact for animals and the environments where they live, read our tips on how to think globally and act locally.

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