IUCN is the world’s largest and most influential environmental network, dedicated to conserving nature and harnessing the solutions nature offers to global challenges, and SSC is the largest of its seven expert commissions, which enables it to influence, encourage and assist societies to conserve biodiversity by building knowledge on the status and threats to species, providing advice, developing policies and guidelines, facilitating conservation planning, and catalysing conservation action. Its flagship IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is the authoritative source on extinction risk, shaping conservation policies worldwide.
The Centre for Species Survival for Fungi (CSS Fungi) – based at and staffed by experts from Terra, Expo City Dubai – is testament to the UAE’s commitment to sustainability and biodiversity, with Expo City Dubai serving as a hub for collaboration on environmental solutions and Terra driving awareness, innovation and action. The CSS Fungi will work closely with the SSC Fungi Conservation Committee and the SSC Fungi Specialist Groups that are part of the largest network of volunteer experts in the world, with more than 11,000 members in 186 territories.
“It is imperative that we leave no stone unturned as we tackle the interconnected crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. The UAE has always pushed the boundaries of innovation, and the new Centre for Species Survival demonstrates our commitment to fulfilling the UAE leadership’s vision for Expo City Dubai: a hub to launch initiatives focused on preserving and sustaining our planet. We are proud that Terra – the heart of Expo City’s sustainability legacy – will house and drive this pioneering initiative in partnership with the SSC, powering global exploration into this great scientific frontier as we continue to test and scale nature-first ideas with global impact” said Marjan Faraidooni, Chief of Education and Culture, Expo City Dubai.
Rarely included in environmental frameworks, fungi represent more than 90 per cent of the world’s unknown biodiversity, supporting nearly all plant life, regulating greenhouse gases, repairing polluted environments and offering breakthrough innovations in climate solutions, food systems, medicine, agriculture and architecture, as well as in fashion and design.
“Fungi span from the smallest (a chytrid fungus) to the largest (humongous fungus, Armillaria ostoyae) organisms studied by the network of experts of the IUCN Species Survival Commission. As a group, the number of species that they encompass is mind boggling, certainly reaching into the millions. There are currently 1,300 fungi on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, so there is a lot to do to document and understand their threats to guide policy and action. I am delighted by the creation of the CSS Fungi at Terra, Expo City Dubai, and look forward to the transformative conservation impact that it will bring” said Jon Paul Rodríguez, Chair of the IUCN Species Survival Commission.
The Centre will be the first of its kind in the Middle East and will initially focus on fungi from the region. Its priority is to launch assessments for a global fungi-focused Red List – IUCN’s comprehensive, scientific evaluation of the extinction risk of species and a credible source and catalyst for safeguarding and mitigation efforts.
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