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China Species Specialist Group: piloting a new initiative for expansion of the IUCN Species Survival Commission

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 July 2023

Yan Xie Open the ORCID record for Yan Xie [Opens in a new window]  and
Jon Paul Rodriguez Open the ORCID record for Jon Paul Rodriguez [Opens in a new window]
Yan Xie*
Affiliation:
Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China, and China Species Specialist Group, IUCN Species Survival Commission, Shenzhen, China.
Jon Paul Rodriguez
Affiliation:
IUCN Species Survival Commission, Provita, and Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas, Caracas, Venezuela
*
xieyan@ioz.ac.cn
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Abstract

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Type
Conservation News
Information
Oryx , Volume 57 , Issue 4 , July 2023 , pp. 418
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence CC BY 4.0.
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International

National Species Specialist Groups are a new type of group of the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC), designed to catalyse interdisciplinary cooperation across specialist groups and to develop national species expert networks to help reverse biodiversity loss and face new nature-related sustainability challenges.

The China Species Specialist Group is one of a few recently launched pilot groups (including in Colombia, Indonesia and Madagascar). It focuses on supporting China, the host nation of the Convention of Biological Diversity's recent CoP15, to develop and implement the country's ambitious National Biodiversity Strategic and Action Plan, and to develop a model for pragmatic advancement of the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

The establishment of this new Specialist Group has improved SSC's ability to provide support to conservation and research projects in China, and opened doors for young professionals, non-English speaking specialists and multi-taxa biodiversity experts to engage in SSC's international community. Since its establishment in 2022, the Specialist Group has recruited > 100 new members into the SSC, launched pilot programmes for young professionals and initiated a comprehensive study in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area, via the newly formed Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macau Biodiversity Alliance, which the Specialist Group helped establish. Spearheaded by the universities of Sun Yat-Sen, Hong Kong and Macau, the Alliance aims to create an interinstitutional platform for knowledge sharing and regional biosphere collaborations.

The new Specialist Group's pilot biosphere study in the Greater Bay Area aims to examine the dynamic interrelationships between biodiversity and climate for each of the area's 11 municipal biospheres and collectively as a regional biosphere. The study includes tools for spatial planning and sustainable financing, such as the IUCN Red List, and measurable, reportable and verifiable carbon measurements of climate impacts on nature. The Greater Bay Area Biodiversity Alliance is a collaborative model for facilitating cross-border planning and implementation of regional biodiversity strategies and action plans and other nature conservation and sustainability development efforts.