The role of the UK Species Survival Working Group (SSWG) is in support of the work of the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) and its programme and initiatives.
This IUCN NCUK Working Group will focus on new initiatives and innovative approaches for species conservation using the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) as its overarching guiding international framework. It will complement the work of other NCUK Working Groups, such as those dealing with Protected Areas (PAWG), Ecological Restoration (ERWG) and Education and Communication.
The SSWG will connect research and practice in some of the SSC’s thematic work areas in a UK context, including the Commission’s Species Strategic plan 2021-2025 and its high-level goals through its Species Conservation Cycle of: Network – Assess – Plan – Act – Communicate, Red List Assessment and Reverse the Red initiatives, the concept of an overarching SSC UK Specialist Group and will build relationships between the networks of practitioners delivering in these areas.
Other initiatives such as a UK Centre for Native Species and relevant government policy responses may also be developed. The geographical area of operation includes the British Isles and the UK’s Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies.
The emphasis will be on new and innovative practices which aim to reverse biodiversity loss and contribute to meeting the relevant short, medium and longer term targets agreed by parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity as they are negotiated and agreed.
In the last week of June 2024, a very successful collaboration between the IUCN National Committee UK’s Species Survival Working Group and IUCN Member the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM) resulted in a well-attended and informative symposium on the subject of species translocation, with particular reference to mitigation for species affected by development works. Although designed for an audience of developers and their consultants, there is information here of interest to a wide variety of practitioners and nature conservationists.
A recording of the symposium is now available on YouTube in its 2 x 2 hour sessions format and the links to the recording are separated below. Session 1 and Session 2
You can see the programme for the symposium below:
One of the first actions of this working group was to respond to the species objectives in the government’s Nature Recovery Green Paper consultation and the consultation on Environmental Targets, which you can read below. Most recently a response to the Defra consultation on a new UK Overseas Territories Biodiversity Strategy and a response to an IUCN SSC consultation on the role of botanic gardens, aquariums and zoos have been submitted:
The response from the SSWG to the Government’s consultation on species reintroduction (January 2023) is available below:
SSWG Co- Chairs:
