World union for the Nature (UICN) 

Introduction 
World union for the Nature (UICN), international organization that tries to assure the protection of the integrity and the diversity of the nature, allowing at the same time a sustainable development. 
The World Union for the Nature or UICN (in English, The World Conservation Unión, IUCN), it gathers more than 900 members, among them representatives of several States, official institutions and non government organizations (ONGs), with more than 140 represented countries. She/he has for motto: "a fair world that it appreciates and it protects the nature." 

HISTORY 
The UICN is born in 1948 in Fontainebleau, with the name of International Union for the Protection of the Nature, for initiative of the UNESCO, of France and of Switzerland. In 1956 taking the name of World Union for the Conservation of the Nature and the Natural Resources and in 1991 it is rebaptized as World Union for the Nature. 
In 1980 the UICN, the World Fund for the Nature (WWF) and the Program of the United Nations for the environment (PNUMA), in collaboration with the UNESCO and the FAO, they created the World Strategy for the Conservation (EMC). This has as objective to assure the protection of the biodiversity and of the ecosystems, allowing at the same time their exploitation inside the mark from a sustainable development to world scale. The setting in practice of that Strategy is object of a pursuit by means of international conferences. 

OBJECTIVES 
The UICN has for mission to influence, to encourage and to help to the societies of the whole world to conserve the integrity and the diversity of the nature, and to assure that all use of the natural resources is equal and ecologically sustainable". Its objective of protection of the nature goes mainly by the safeguard of the threatened species, as well as for the setting in practice of actions that they spread to promote the rational use of the natural resources. 

Organization 
The UICN contains to diverse institutions and committees, so much in an international plane as national or regional. A general assembly, the World Congress for the Nature, meets every three years in order to establish the politics and the programs of the organization for the 3 following years. The Council of the UICN participates in the politics's realization and of the resolved programs, guiding the World Secretary, in charge of its setting in practice (and that it assures the relationships equally among the members of the organization). on the other hand, 6 Commissions exist: Commission of Survival of Species (CSE); World Commission of Protected areas (CMAP); Commission of Environmental, Economic and Social Politics; Commission of Environmental Right (CDA); Commission of Education and Communication (CEC) and Commission of Administration of Ecosystems (CGE). The Commissions are integrated by about 10.000 specialists. 
Numerous National and Regional Committees that constitute the grouping in a country or region of the government and not government members that the UICN composes, complete the work of those international institutions. 

WORK 
The UICN carries out studies dedicated to estimate the level of the current biodiversity and the state of the natural means. In function of the results, it puts in practical specific protection strategies and adapted creating national parks or protected spaces -mainly or even supporting the setting in practice of international or national legislations that favor the protection of the environment. 
The Red List of Threatened Species of the UICN is the most complete inventory in the state of conservation of the animal species and vegetables. The Commission of Survival of Species, integrated by about 7.000 experts, is the one in charge of elaborating the Red List that has as objective to show the problems of survival to those that face multitude of species, as well as to make aware and to motivate to the world community so that the necessary conservation actions settle down and decrease the extinction of the species. 
Nine categories exist in the system of the Red List of the UICN to describe the degree of threat of a taxón: Extinct (FORMER), Extinct in Estado Silvestre (EW), In Critical Danger (CR), In Danger (IN), Vulnerable (VU), Almost Threatened (NT), smaller Concern (LC), Insufficient Data (DD) and Not Evaluated (NE). they are considered threatened species of extinction those that are in the categories: Vulnerable, In Danger and In Critical Danger. The inclusion in these categories is made assisting to 5 approaches that include: decrease rate, the population's size, area of geographical distribution, and degree of the population's fragmentation and the distribution. 
The Red List of 2002 contains evaluations of more than 18.400 species, 11.167 of those which are threatened. Of the 5.453 threatened animal species, 1.137 correspond mammals, 1.192 to birds, 293 to reptiles, 157 to amphibians, 742 at fish and 1.932 to spineless. In the List 2002 they figure 5.714 threatened plants; however, a small percentage of the plants has only been evaluated described in the world, for what the number of threatened plants should be much bigger. The List of species of plants is composed mainly of trees, since these have been almost all evaluated.