Magazine of the species survival Commission specialist Group - IUCN

SOS – Save Our Species
A global response to the challenge of
biodiversity loss
IUCN, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the World
Bank (WB) have created SOS (Save Our Species), a concrete
response to the extinction crisis identified by the IUCN Red
List of Threatened Species TM . Research has shown that
conservation works, but it needs to be scaled up, yet a
distinct lack of financial support for conservation projects
continues to be an obstacle. SOS was officially launched
during the recent CBD COP 10 meeting in Nagoya, Japan,
and will call primarily on businesses to help build the biggest
global species conservation fund by 2015.
SOS’s tagline, ‘Save Our Species – Save OurSelves’, truly
underlines the urgency of the situation, by highlighting that
healthy biodiversity is essential to human wellbeing,
sustainable development and poverty reduction. Without
immediate action to halt the decline of biodiversity, not only
will species disappear forever, but the very fabric of our
society and livelihoods will be in severe jeopardy. SOS will
work by filling a vital gap for medium- to large-sized grants
that can be applied specifically to saving threatened species
and their habitats (> USD 25,000), as well as providing rapid
action grants (< USD 25,000) to respond to conservation
emergencies.
This new initiative will give the private sector a unique
opportunity to become directly involved in saving the planet’s
natural environment, using a species approach. This
Saiga Antelope (Saiga tatarica) © Navinder J. Singh
10 • species 52