Dr. Simon Stuart : 4. Wildlife Conservation from Now on

4. Wildlife Conservation from Now on

Development of the New IUCN Red List

The new Red List established by Dr. Stuart and his team faced many difficulties before it became what it is today. They had to accumulate research data to make the criteria more accurate and reliable, and as explained above, the work of nature conservation must also deal with not only scientific facts, but also various groups with vested interests. Even after the new criteria were established, some governments and industry groups did not want profitable species listed as threatened.
For example, when they published the 1996 IUCN Red List using the new categories and quantitative criteria, bluefin tuna and North Atlantic cod were listed as threatened; however, several governmental fisheries agencies expressed strong displeasure, because these species were extremely important for their fisheries industry. Nevertheless, Dr. Stuart and his team refused to give into political pressure. They separated political objections from genuine scientific issues being raised by fisheries scientists.

By working through these issues, they were able to make the IUCN Red List more objective and trustworthy. The Red List has been widely used, exceeding all of Dr. Stuart's initial expectation. It is used to raise funds for conservation, stop the economic development within habitats of threatened species through government intervention, provide data used to decide where roads should be constructed so as to avoid interfering with threatened species' habitat, and used by banks when making investment decisions.

At 2016 IUCN Congress in Hawaii

Grass-roots Activity for Nature Conservation

In 2016, he retired from the IUCN when his term limit expired after serving eight years as Chair of the IUCN Species Survival Commission. In 2017, he started working with Synchronicity Earth, which is an organization that funds the conservation of wildlife. Dr. Stuart had come to think that the future of conservation lies not with large western organizations, but rather with local groups conducting grassroots activities in tropical countries. He, therefore, chose Synchronicity Earth, which supports a lot of activities that interest him, including amphibian conservation; he decided to engage in grassroots nature conservation activities.

At Wyoming National Park, with his family

After having been involved in wildlife conservation at a global level, Dr. Stuart thinks that national borders mean little in making a better future for everyone, because we all face the same issues such as climate change, food, water, energy problems, and COVID-19.

At Cape of Good Hope, South Africa

Do you think we will be able to reframe our world, find the best way to coexist with nature, and build a society that is more generous and kinder than it is now?
Dr. Stuart believes that we can. He says, "We all should cooperate with one another, express our objections clearly to what we think is not right, but respect others rather than seeing them as enemies; and it’s important that we keep our hope alive." This is Dr. Stuart’s message to young people.