WHY SOS - SAVE OUR SPECIES
The diversity of life on our planet is breathtaking, offering a huge variety of animals and plants. We sometimes forget that we, as individuals, customers and businesses, rely on this diversity of life to provide us with the food, fuel, medicine and other essentials we simply cannot live without.
Yet this rich diversity is disappearing at a frightening and accelerating rate, as the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ indicates.Thousands of animals and plants around the world face extinction with species currently disappearing at a rate up to 1,000 times higher than normal. 1 in 4 mammals, 1 in 3 amphibians, 1 in 3 corals, and 1 in 8 birds are at risk of extinction.
Without immediate action to halt the decline of biodiversity, not only will species disappear forever, but the very fabric of our society and livelihoods could be placed in severe jeopardy.
"Biological diversity underpins ecosystem functioning and the provision of ecosystem services essential for human well-being," says UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. "Its continued loss, therefore, has major implications for current and future human well-being... The maintenance and restoration of natural infrastructure can provide economic gains worth trillions of dollars a year."
SOS - ‘Save Our Species – Save Our Selves’ is our answer.
THE INITIATIVE - A GLOBAL COALITION
SOS - Save Our Species is a global coalition initiated by the 3 founding partners IUCN, GEF and World Bank to build the biggest species conservation fund, supporting on-the-ground field conservation projects all over the world. SOS will combine resources and funding experience from the World Bank and GEF (Global Environment Facility), the authoritative science of IUCN and the resources and ingenuity of the private sector to create a mechanism that ensures sufficient funding goes to species conservation projects where and when it will have the most impact.
Save Our Species is managed through a secretariat housed within the IUCN for the allocation of funds. Grants are allocated according to strategic directions identified in consultation with IUCN`s Species Program and Species Survival Commission.
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