Since its conception by Sir Peter Scott in 1963, The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ has become the most authoritative source of information on the global extinction risk of species and is widely used to underpin decision-making and conservation action around the world. The IUCN Red List reflects risk of extinction and collapse, but also changes in risk over time. However, while genuine decline in risk should be celebrated as a conservation success, it may only be a first step towards achievement of a more ambitious conservation goal. The IUCN Green Status of Species was therefore developed to serve as a global standard for measuring species recovery and assessing conservation impact. The Green Status of Species assessments document all dimensions of species conservation success and help incentivize conservation action toward species’ recovery and preventing future declines. The Green Status assessments are published alongside the Red List Assessments on The IUCN Red List website. The IUCN Red List is the result of a massive data gathering and data management exercise produced by a vast partnership. The work is carried out by members of the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC), by IUCN members and partners, with support from and in close association with the IUCN Biodiversity Assessment and Knowledge Team (BAKT). The day-to-day running and management of The IUCN Red List is handled by the BAKT’s Red List Unit.

We are recruiting a Junior Professional to help with some of the daily tasks concerning the Green Status assessments.

The salary for this position is £23,500 p.a.

CHARACTERISTIC DUTIES

The Junior Professional provides assistance to colleagues in the IUCN Red List Unit on matters concerning the Green Status of Species (GSS) assessments particularly the publishing of the assessments on The IUCN Red List of Threatened SpeciesTM. This includes use of the new Green Status of Species module in the Species Information Service, the online database used to store and manage the Green Status of Species assessments. In particular, the data from the published and draft Green Status assessments done as part of the process to test the new standard need to be reviewed and uploaded into the Green Status module in SIS. The draft assessments need to be finalized in collaboration with the assessors involved. The Junior Professional will assist IUCN SSC Specialist Group members, staff from Red List Partners and any other people interested in undertaking Green Status assessments in using the module in SIS. They will be responsible for processing assessments submitted for publication, assisting with updating the Red List web site, acting as the first point of contact for general enquiries to the Red List about Green Status matters, and will assist colleagues with communicating Green Status information and Green Status training.


SPECIFIC DUTIES

Processing Green Status assessments for publication on The IUCN Red List

• Assist with testing upgrades to the Green Status of Species (GSS) module in the Species Information Service (SIS).
• Upload the data for the published GSS assessments into the Green Status module in SIS.
• Upload data for other draft GSS assessments completed to test the GSS standard into the GSS module in SIS and work with the assessors and Specialist Groups involved to get these finalized and submitted for publication on the The IUCN Red List.
• Assist IUCN SSC Specialist Groups and others in using the GSS module in SIS to undertake GSS assessments.
• Carry out standard quality checks on submitted assessments to ensure these are of a suitable standard for publication on The IUCN Red List. This includes checking the required minimum supporting information has been provided and that the Green Status methodology has been correctly applied to obtain the Green Status score and Recovery Category and that the Conservation Metrics are all correctly recorded.
• Check and, where necessary, help to finalize GIS distribution maps for submitted assessments.
• Return any sub-standard assessments to assessors and assessment project teams with appropriate comments to help improve their quality for resubmission later.


Updating The IUCN Red List website

• Assist with the maintenance and updating of the existing Green Status of Species pages on The IUCN Red List website and potentially create new pages, as requested by senior colleagues in the Red List Unit.
• Assist with testing functionality of the Red List web site and report any issues in a timely manner.


Communicating Green Status of Species information

• Assist colleagues in the Red List Unit and IUCN Global Communications teams with preparing materials for media releases, including helping to identify suitable stories for media releases and assisting the Communications Team to source photographs.
• Assist colleagues in the Red List Unit and IUCN Communications teams with answering media enquiries, where necessary.
• Respond to general enquiries from Red List web site users on Green Status matters. This involves compiling a range of standard replies to common questions and identifying appropriate experts within IUCN and the IUCN SSC network to forward specific enquiries on to, where necessary.


Assisting with Red List meetings and workshops

• Assist Red List Unit colleagues to prepare materials for Red List meetings and Green Status workshops.
• Prepare and deliver presentations about The IUCN Red List and the Green Status of Species at meetings and workshops, as requested by senior Red List Unit staff.