Our Nature

The Naturalliance network is run by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), to help you to live well. To live well, you need to make good decisions, for yourself and in your community, about benefits and risks from the natural world. IUCN embraces knowledge from 1,400 organisations, including 90 governments, and 24,000 experts to provide the best knowledge for decisions about the natural world.

 
The United Nations is 75. Happy Birthday!
14 Aug 2020

Everyone is invited to a United Nations survey! The UN observer with specific expertise for biodiversity, nature conservation and sustainable use is IUCN, so do visit our Naturalliance site too. In each case choose your language at top right.

 
Consider COVID-19 carefully
26 May 2020

Please think carefully about the threats to you and nature from COVID-19. Use only advice from trustworthy organisations on how you and your community can recognise and avoid this disease. Consider the different needs of rural people elsewhere. The virus survives in moist air and infects us through mouth, nose and eyes. Soap kills it. Therefore, important advice is to:

  • keep 2m from people - avoid air they breathe out;
  • obey rules about travel and wear a mask if you can; 
  • disinfect surfaces people touch and of things you buy;
  • wash your hands often with soap for 20 seconds, especially before touching mouth, nose, eyes or food.

 

Measures against future pandemics must also be devised wisely, based on the best science. New laws should avoid harm to rural livelihoods and to nature conservation.

 

We live in a world highly influenced by humans, but that was not always the case. Modern humans evolved for tens of millennia as small groups of hunter-gatherers. Our ancestors hunted, fished and gathered plant products before learning to cultivate plants and tame animals. This formed our species in ways we do not fully understand.

 

Cave paintings show that respect for other animals has always been important. Hunting created the first nature reserves and anglers organise to restore rivers. Animal protection organisations were started by people who had gained empathy for companion animals.

 

Nowadays, humans dominate and harm nature’s riches. Yet we all depend on nature for air to breath, clean water, and clement weather to grow crops. Many of us stay healthy through recreation in nature. We should learn ways to manage nature well, not least for COVID-19 and wildlife trade. If you enjoy wild foods or just love watching wildlife, you too can help conserve those resources.

 

Hunters and watchers of wildlife do not always cooperate, but they need to. Conflicts divert attention from threats to all, like climate change. Using renewable resources sustainably is not different from using farmed produce, but often better for conserving nature. Hunting, farming and other uses of natural resources can be solutions for conservation and the threats from global warming. We need to focus together on solutions, based both on technology that creates new livelihoods and on nature itself.