I’m delighted to announce the publication of “Launching the IUCN Microbial Conservation Specialist Group as a global safeguard for microbial biodiversity” — a short publication in Nature, written by the new IUCN Microbe Group, of which I am a part! The paper introduces the need for a Specialist Group focused on microorganisms, microbial communities, and the connection between microbes and health of environments and all other organisms.

The new IUCN Microbe group is being led by Drs. Jack Gilbert and Raquel Peixoto, who are internationally famous for their research into environmental microbiomes as well as their contributions to conservation. Now that the Microbe Group has been assembled, we have been working on creating a prospectus for the group which outlines our goals and activities for the next few years, as well as steps for recruiting research and policy expertise, as needed, setting up international working groups for implementing conservation, and opening the group for global supporting membership.

Gilbert, J., Scholz, A., Dominguez-Bello, M.G., Korsten, L., Berg, G., Singh, B., Boetius, A., Wang, F., Greening, C., Wrighton, K., Bordenstein, S., Jansson, J., Lennon, J., Souza, V., Thomas, T., Cowan, D., Crowther, T., Nguyen, N., Harper, L., Haraoui, L-P., Ishaq, S., Redford, K. 2025. “Launching the IUCN Microbial Conservation Specialist Group as a global safeguard for microbial biodiversity” Nature

Back in May, I had the honor of attending a three-day workshop on “Conservation in a Microbial World“, which gathered researchers, innovators, and policy makers to discuss the concept, need, logistics, and possibility of formally making microorganisms part of the considerations of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the global organization which coordinates the protection of species and ecosystems. The meeting was to provide guidance to the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) on microbial ecology, ecosystems which are at risk or already losing micobial diversity because of degradation and human activities, as well as strategies to bring attention to the need to consider microbes in the health of organisms and ecosystems.