IUCN welcomes distinguished scientists from around the world and a wide variety of disciplines to the new IUCN Science Advisory Board.
Successful conservation requires sound priority setting and decision-making that is based on the best available science. IUCN’s Science Advisory Board is a way to support the integration of new areas of relevant science into the Union’s work, and an important complement to the extensive biodiversity conservation expertise already embodied within IUCN’s Commissions.
IUCN’s science-based efforts have supported many conservation successes and increased global awareness of biodiversity and its importance. However, conservation in the 21st century is increasingly complex and, effective conservation management requires a systemic, holistic approach that encompasses many areas of expertise beyond the traditional realms of conservation science.
Relevant knowledge is emerging not just from the global academic research world but also from non-traditional areas including the private sector, development community and others. To enhance the scope of the knowledge IUCN provides, and as a complement to the strengths in conservation science the Union already possesses, IUCN has sought expertise from a broader expert community, in the form of the IUCN Science Advisory Board.
Science Advisory Board members have expertise in global issues and include representation from major scientific societies such as the International Council of Science (ICSU), the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE), the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS) and UNESCO as well as the private sector and academia. The Board will stimulate integrated, multi-disciplinary exploration, through a biodiversity lens, of the main challenges facing sustainable development today. View the profiles of IUCN’s Science Advisory Board.
The IUCN Science Advisory Board will provide advice and support to improving the relevance of IUCN’s work to global agendas and will support links to new audiences and other communities and actors working on conservation relevant issues. In this effort, the work of the Board will be integrated with the strong biodiversity science networks of IUCN.
For more information, contact Dr Sue Mainka: sue.mainka@iucn.org
