World Wildlife Conservation Day: In conversation with SoGE’s Dr Molly Grace

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, more than 48,600 species – including animals, plants, and fungi – are threatened with extinction. This is 28% of all assessed species. World Wildlife Conservation Day was started in 2012 by then US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton to raise awareness of wildlife endangerment and the man-made causes of extinction, including poaching, trafficking, and wildlife crime, although conservation efforts to preserve and save animal and plant species from extinction have been ongoing for decades.

On this World Wildlife Conservation Day, we sat down with Dr Molly Grace, Senior Departmental Lecturer at SoGE and Programme Director for our MSc in Biodiversity Conservation and Nature Recovery, to discuss all things conservation, favourite animals and plants, and how research in this space is developing.

Q: What is your current conservation research focusing on and what new things are you uncovering about wildlife conservation?

Molly: My research programme focuses on measuring and incentivising the recovery of species – animals, plants, and fungi. For a very long time, the focus of species conservation has been not on recovery, but on preventing extinction. While this is absolutely important, and is the first step in successful conservation, if conservation is framed just in terms of reducing extinction, we risk ending up with under-ambitious conservation goals.

Until recently there was no standardised way to assess species recovery. That's where my work with the IUCN comes in. I co-chair a working group that oversees the IUCN Green Status of Species, which is the new global standard for assessing species recovery.

Having a standardised way to assess species recovery allows us to tell a more complete conservation story for a species. A great example is the recently published Green Status assessment of the Lion, which is presented on the IUCN website alongside information about its extinction risk. Lions have been classified as Vulnerable to extinction since 1996, and people looking at that unchanging status over 20 years might think that conservation efforts aren’t working. However, the Green Status assessment shows that there is a high "Conservation Legacy" – without the conservation actions that have been put in place, like protected areas and legal protections, the Lion would be in a much worse state than it is today. The assessment also shows high "Recovery Potential" – within 100 years, it should be possible to establish viable populations of Lions across much of its pre-impact range.

Q: In your opinion, how impactful are current global conservation efforts?

Molly: This is one of my big research questions. The evidence we have is that our conservation efforts are working, but to see this we often need to shift our perspective. Many of our big wins to date have been preventing declines. While this may not be hugely inspiring, it's critically important. A paper we published in 2021 showed that for 181 species we assessed with the Green Status, conservation has prevented declines for more than half of these species, including 33 species where conservation prevented extinction. There was also a landmark study published last year and co-authored by Joe Bull from the Department of Biology at Oxford that showed that conservation globally is working!

My colleagues and I are just starting to look at this at scale by working with various countries to assess how effective their actions have been both on preventing decline and promoting recovery for species within their own borders; the Green Status has been adopted as an indicator for the Global Biodiversity Framework within the Convention on Biological Diversity.

Q: What does the future of conservation look like? Many believe we are in the middle of Earth’s sixth mass extinction event – much of it driven by human activity. Can conservation efforts meaningfully help to preserve those endangered animals we have left?

Molly: One of the metrics we estimate for the Green Status is called "Recovery Potential", which measures how much recovery could we achieve if we put our mind to it – taking into account things like habitat loss and climate change. For many species, this Recovery Potential is pretty high! This is really motivating to me – it shows that if we are able to mobilise resources, there is still time to achieve huge wins for nature.

Q: What is your favourite part of your work?

Molly: Learning about the incredible diversity of species on the planet! We assess each species individually (though luckily we now have teams all over the world to help us do this) so each assessment is a deep dive into the history and future of the fungus, plant, or animal being assessed.

Q: Do you have any thoughts on the outcomes of COP30 and the disappointing absence of a roadmap to end deforestation – which is of course a key driver of biodiversity and species loss?

Molly: COP30 started with huge and admirable ambitions, and the fact that they weren't achieved is disappointing but not surprising. While not binding, the roadmaps toward climate adaptation, just transition, and halting forest loss should nonetheless be celebrated. Hopefully the countries and actors who want to continue this work will be able to use the support provided by the COP to continue talks to make progress over the next year.

Q: What is your favourite animal!

Molly: I am a herpetologist by training, so my favourite animals are usually reptiles or amphibians. At the moment, I'll say palmate newt, because I saw my first one while in the field recently! To avoid plant blindness, I'll also give my favourite plant – I love carnivorous plants, especially Venus flytraps, which are native to the part of the US I am from. And a fungus just to be fair – I love spotting amethyst deceivers while out on walks!