Species
Recovery
Alliance
More than $500 million committed over five years to recovering the world’s most threatened species.
Nine private funders have created a new Species Recovery Alliance in what aims to become the largest coordinated philanthropic effort dedicated to recovering threatened species. Together, we are directing sustained investment toward conservation actions that can reverse the decline of imperiled wildlife and, in doing so, restore healthy, thriving ecosystems.
The Challenge
More than 31,000 species worldwide are classified as Extinct in the Wild, Critically Endangered or Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, including more than 10,000 Critically Endangered species. Of those, more than 10% have populations of fewer than 50 individuals remaining.
While protecting habitat is essential, research shows that 57% of threatened species require targeted conservation interventions, such as conservation breeding, genetic rescue, reintroductions, disease mitigation, poaching prevention or other methods to prevent extinction and facilitate recovery.
We already have much of the knowledge, technology and expertise needed to save these species. Conservation successes have demonstrated that even species with extremely small populations can recover with the right support. The challenge is scaling these successes to reach the thousands of species that urgently need help.
The Species Recovery Alliance
As Alliance members we coordinate our investments, share knowledge and work with local conservation partners to maximize their collective impact. By connecting existing conservation efforts, the alliance helps ensure that funding, science and conservation action are aligned to achieve lasting results.
Alliance Members
The nine founding members of the Species Recovery Alliance are:
Our Commitment
Our alliance members commit to:
Supporting species classified as Extinct in the Wild, Critically Endangered and Endangered.
Providing funding at the scale and duration needed to achieve measurable recovery.
Coordinating investments and expertise to maximize conservation impact.
Sharing lessons learned to accelerate collective impact.
Measuring species recovery using the IUCN Green Status of Species and Red List of Threatened Species.
Why species?
Species are the building blocks of life on Earth. From forests and grasslands to coral reefs and wetlands, ecosystems depend on the plants, animals, fungi and microorganisms that sustain them. As species decline and disappear, the ecosystems they sustain and the benefits they provide to people begin to unravel.
Healthy, functioning ecosystems are essential to our climate, food security, national security, freshwater, economies, livelihoods and well-being. Recovering threatened species is therefore not only about preventing extinction. It is about restoring the ecological relationships and processes that allow nature, and humanity as a part of nature, to thrive.
Every species also has an inherent right to exist. Yet human activities are driving species toward extinction at rates far above natural background levels. Preventing these losses and recovering threatened species is both an ecological necessity and a shared responsibility.
How do we measure recovery?
The alliance is committed to achieving measurable recovery, not simply preventing further declines.
Members will use the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and the IUCN Green Status of Species to assess conservation outcomes. While the Red List evaluates a species' risk of extinction, the Green Status measures its recovery and the impact of conservation actions.
Together, these tools help demonstrate whether investments are reducing extinction risk and putting species on a path toward recovery.
Advancing Global Biodiversity Goals
The Species Recovery Alliance supports Target 4 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, adopted by countries in 2022, which calls for urgent action to halt human-caused extinctions, reduce extinction risk and recover threatened species.
By mobilizing sustained investment in targeted conservation interventions, the alliance contributes to this global commitment to halt extinctions and put threatened species on the path to recovery.
Join the alliance.
The Species Recovery Alliance welcomes additional philanthropic organizations and funders committed to increasing global investment in species recovery.
To learn more about joining the alliance, contact blong@rewild.org
For information about funding for a particular species or conservation project, please contact the relevant alliance member directly.