Reliable and timely information on the status of biodiversity
and the health of our environment is fundamental when taking
environment-related decisions. IUCN provides governments, the
private sector, multilateral agencies responsible for natural
resource use, and environmental treaties with access to state-of
the-art information and trends on biodiversity. IUCN derives its
value as a trusted source of knowledge from its expert groups,
its Members, and its Secretariat. An example of this work in
Europe is the European Red List. It is a review of the
conservation status of European species according to IUCN
regional Red Listing guidelines. It identifies those species
that are threatened with extinction at the pan-European and EU
levels so that appropriate conservation action can be taken to
improve their status. Red List training is also provided to help
governments with their national assessments.