IUCN has been described as "the conservation world's best-kept secret". It is the oldest global conservation body, founded 50 years ago. For half a century it has been a "green web", linking governments, non-governmental organizations and the world's leading individual conservationists and providing a unique forum where they can meet and debate. It has prepared global strategies and originated some of the world's most important environmental laws. It is the world authority on threatened species and on national parks and protected areas. Its influence has been enormous - and yet few people outside the conservation world understand what it is and what it does. This book describes the history of IUCN, drawing on a mass of hitherto-unpublished sources and the memories of many who have played a key part in world conservation down the years. But it also sets the "green web" in context, reviewing how it has influenced the whole world environmental movement in a half century that has unquestionably been the "age of environment"
Includes bibliographic references
