At the 2019 Species Survival Commission (SSC) Leaders’ Meeting, members of the Global Tree Specialist Group (GTSG) and the Global Tree Assessment’s network were recipients of three IUCN SSC awards. These awards are given to recognize the exemplary voluntary contribution of individuals and Specialist Groups towards the global work of IUCN.

Vololoniaina Jeannoda, leader of the Madagascar Plant Specialist Group, was awarded the Sir Peter Scott Award for Conservation Merit. This award recognised her extensive contribution to the conservation of Madagascar’s unique and diverse flora. Vololoniaina Jeannoda was pivotal to establishing the GTA Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund project, which will assess 2,000 endemic Malagasy tree species in collaboration with the University of Antananarivo, Kew Madagascar Conservation Centre (KMCC) and Missouri Botanical Garden Madagascar Program.

The Harry Messel Award for Conservation Leadership was received by Malin Rivers, Secretary of GTSG, for her contribution to the IUCN Red List over her career. In particular, it recognises her key role in coordinating the Global Tree Assessment and her innovative management of the initiative. This includes the development of the Least Concern Workflow, chairing the Red List Technical Working Group, her collaboration with multiple partners and institutions towards completing GTA, and her significant contribution of tree assessments to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Finally, GTSG won The SSC Chair’s Citation of Excellence, in recognition of the ‘outstanding contribution the GTSG has made in delivering the Species Strategic Plan between 2017 and 2018’. During this period, over 2,000 assessments for trees were added to the IUCN Red List. The award was accepted by GTSG co-chair Sara Oldfield who attended the meeting in Abu Dhabi, bringing great publicity to the GTA and our progress in the last few years. This progress would not have been possible without the commitment of over 100 GTSG members, all putting in voluntary time to review assessments and taking on funding to produce assessments for trees. We are grateful for the continued support of GTSG membership and GTA partners and institutions.

To win three coveted prizes from IUCN is a real achievement for GTA and shows the initiative is gaining momentum across a wider audience. This news is particularly timely as we prepare to enter our final year with our biggest push towards completing assessments for all the world’s trees by 2020.

As well as performing an in situ and ex situ gap analysis for these species, The Red List of Trees of Madagascar Report provided a unique opportunity to identify the most threatened habitat for trees (lowland rainforest) and the distribution of threatened trees. The latter found that, the states of SAVA, DIANA, Analanjirofo and Anosy have the highest proportion of tree species, and are sites in particular need of tree conservation effort. With information like this now available, Emily Beech, Tree Red List Manager, Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) says ‘…The Red List of Trees of Madagascar aims to both provide information to prioritise conservation efforts and inspire action to improve the conservation status of those trees most at risk of extinction, to maintain this unique diversity for years to come.”

This work was funded by the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund in a project called “Assessing the Conservation Status of Madagascar’s Trees for Effective Conservation of Key Biodiversity Areas and Protected Areas” and Fondation Franklinia. As part of this project, the first priority was assessing all tree species in Madagascar’s Dry Forest. This initial report (The Red List of Dry Forest Trees of Madagascar) found that 50 per cent of species native to this habitat were threatened with extinction in the wild.