IUCN participated to the first meeting of the International Standardization Organisation (ISO) technical committee on biodiversity from 28 June to 2 July 2021. Dr Thomas Brooks and Dr Flore Lafaye de Micheaux from IUCN Science and Knowledge Unit represented IUCN in the meeting. This technical committee, ISO/TC 331, aims to produce standardization in the field of biodiversity, for organisations to enhance their contribution to sustainable development. 34 countries are already members of the committee and 20 more are observers. The TC work programme will ‘develop requirements, principles, framework, guidance and supporting tools in a holistic and global approach’.

IUCN considers engagement with ISO/TC 331 to be essential. Bringing IUCN expertise, standards, knowledge products and data into the processes and outcomes of the ISO/TC 331 will be beneficial to the TC’s work, to IUCN and more globally to the mainstreaming of biodiversity into societies. Therefore, IUCN has supported the creation of this committee from its inception, further to the initiative of AFNOR, the French standardisation agency. The committee was established in June 2020, and IUCN successfully applied for a liaison-A partnership, i.e. at the ISO/TC global level.

The outcomes of the June meeting were satisfactory: the scope of the TC has been confirmed, the structure of its work programme has been identified, as well as the priority that will be given to defining terms (terminology) and to literature review and gap analysis. The discussions were rich and relevant, with global consensus on the urgency to improve biodiversity condition.

IUCN looks forward to contributing to the ISO/TC 331 given both the opportunity to build from existing standards – such as the IUCN Red List Categories & Criteria, the Global Standard for Identification of Key Biodiversity Areas, and the IUCN Nature-based Solutions Standard – and welcomes the timing of this initiative, which is crucial to support implementation of the new post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.