Despite its role in shaping global environmental action, few people outside the conservationist community know about the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the organizer of the WCC.

Founded in 1948, the IUCN is the world’s oldest and largest environmental organization. Most of the world’s governments and hundreds of non-governmental organizations are members.

Many of the world’s environmental treaties such as the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Convention on International Trade on Endangered Species began as IUCN initiatives. It was also the IUCN that introduced the phrase “sustainable development” into the international vocabulary in 1978.

The Switzerland-based body also publishes the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species every two to five years.

Korea joined in 2006.

(milaya@heraldcorp.com)