IUCN Red List has completed 50 years of its existence

IUCN on 30 January 2014 announced that it is celebrating 50 years of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species in guiding conservation action and policy decisions. The Red list of IUCN is the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of animal, plant species and fungi related to livelihoods.

The IUCN Red list acts as a powerful tool to inform and catalyse action for biodiversity conservation and policy change for things that are critical to protect the natural resources that is needed by us to survive. It also provides the information on population size as well as trends depending upon the range and habitat needs of species.
Process of how the Red List of IUCN helps in saving the species
• Conservation Planning – It provides the information that is related to species-based conservation actions. It also helps in identifying globally important sites for conservation including important Plant Areas, important bird areas, key biodiversity areas and alliance for zero extinction sites.
• Decision-making – It helps in by influencing the decisions of conservation at multiple scales that includes environmental impact assessments to international multilateral environments agreements
• Monitoring – Indicating the current status of species and revealing trends in their extinction risk over time, to track progress towards biodiversity targets.

International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
The International Union for Conservation of Nature is the world’s oldest and largest global environmental organization. It was founded in 1948 and at present it is the largest professional global conservation network. It is funded by governments, bilateral and multilateral agencies, member organisations, corporations and foundations. It has the status of official observer at the United Nations General Assembly.

For the first time the IUCN Red List was conceived in 1964, when it set a standard for species listing and conservation assessment efforts.