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Launching the IUCN Microbial Conservation Specialist Group as a global safeguard for microbial biodiversity

Nature Microbiology volume 10, pages 2359–2360 (2025)Cite this article

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Despite its importance1,2, microbial life is largely absent from global conservation frameworks3,4. Launched in July 2025, the Microbial Conservation Specialist Group (MCSG) was established as a Species Survival Commission (SSC) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The IUCN is the world’s leading authority in environmental science and policy, renowned for shaping conservation priorities across governments, non-governmental organizations and international treaties. The MCSG convenes a coalition of microbiologists, ecologists, traditional knowledge experts and conservation leaders to develop and advocate for conservation tools, strategies and policies that explicitly integrate microbiology into global biodiversity governance. Despite the importance of microorganisms for ecosystem function, their role has been seen as too abstract or complex to integrate into policy. Elevating microbial perspectives within global conservation has required overcoming a deep-rooted tendency to overlook the invisible5.

First, we will build a global network, including experts from low- and middle-income countries and Indigenous communities, to advise on conservation targets and build an evaluation schema for assessing conservation priorities. To ensure broad and inclusive representation, we are actively inviting experts through a snowball approach, encouraging nominations from our members, and issuing open calls for participation via the IUCN and MCSG websites. We will also prioritize language accessibility, regional balance, and engagement with early-career researchers and traditional knowledge holders to foster equitable participation. Second, we will map conservation priorities by compiling and visualizing global data on microbial ecosystems that are currently threatened by habitat destruction and anthropogenic activity6,7. Third, we will develop microorganism-specific Red List criteria, the globally recognized system used by the IUCN to classify species at high risk of extinction. Our aim is to incorporate microbial features, including metabolic and ecological resilience, rather than individual species abundance, which is more typical with Red List criteria for macroorganisms. Finally, we will map existing microbial conservation projects, such as microorganism-assisted coral restoration8 and soil microbiome rewilding9, and develop criteria to incorporate them into current IUCN efforts10, optimize their application and assess their success. Throughout, we will integrate microbial experts into other IUCN SSC groups (such as those exploring conservation priorities for threatened fungi and wildlife, including corals, amphibians and insects) to ensure that specific microbiological considerations are consistently represented wherever conservation decisions are made. These deliverables create the foundation — data, tools, success stories and people — that we will build on over the next 5 years. The MCSG steering committee is composed of appointed vice-chairs representing diverse expertise and geographies (initially, these will be the co-authors of this comment, chaired by Jack Gilbert and Raquel Peixoto). This committee will guide strategic decisions through structured consensus-building processes and, when needed, formal votes.

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Author information

Author notes

  1. Janet K. Jansson

    Present address: Applied Microbiology International, Cambridge, UK

  2. These authors contributed equally: Jack A. Gilbert, Raquel S. Peixoto.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

    Jack A. Gilbert

  2. Applied Microbiology International, Cambridge, UK

    Jack A. Gilbert & Lucy Harper

  3. International Society for Microbial Ecology (ISME), Arnhem, the Netherlands

    Raquel S. Peixoto

  4. International Coral Reef Society (ICRS), Tavernier, FL, USA

    Raquel S. Peixoto

  5. Division of Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering (BESE), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, Saudi Arabia

    Raquel S. Peixoto

  6. Leibniz Institute DSMZ German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures, Braunschweig, Germany

    Amber Hartman Scholz

  7. Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

    Maria Gloria Dominguez Bello

  8. Department of Anthropology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

    Maria Gloria Dominguez Bello

  9. Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Pretoria, Hatfield, South Africa

    Lise Korsten

  10. Department of Science and Innovation-National Research Foundation Centre of Excellence Food Security, Pretoria, South Africa

    Lise Korsten

  11. Institute of Environmental Biotechnology, Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria

    Gabriele Berg

  12. Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy, Potsdam, Germany

    Gabriele Berg

  13. University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany

    Gabriele Berg

  14. Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Penrith, New South Wales, Australia

    Brajesh Singh

  15. Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Moss Landing, CA, USA

    Antje Boetius

  16. International Center for Deep Life Investigation, State Key Laboratory of Submarine Geoscience and School of Oceanography, Shanghai JiaoTong University, Shanghai, China

    Fengping Wang

  17. Department of Microbiology, Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Chris Greening

  18. Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Chris Greening

  19. Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA

    Kelly Wrighton

  20. One Health Microbiome Center, Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA

    Seth Bordenstein

  21. Department of Biology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA

    Seth Bordenstein

  22. Department of Entomology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA

    Seth Bordenstein

  23. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, USA

    Janet K. Jansson

  24. Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA

    Jay T. Lennon

  25. American Society for Microbiology, Washington, DC, USA

    Jay T. Lennon

  26. American Academy of Microbiology, Washington, DC, USA

    Jay T. Lennon & Nguyen Nguyen

  27. Departamento de Ecología Evolutiva, Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico

    Valeria Souza

  28. Centro de Estudios del Cuaternario de Fuego-Patagonia y Antártica (CEQUA), Punta Arenas, Chile

    Valeria Souza

  29. Centre for Marine Science and Innovation, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Torsten Thomas

  30. School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Torsten Thomas

  31. Centre for Microbial Ecology and Genomics, Department of Biochemistry, Genetics and Microbiology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

    Don Cowan

  32. Institute of Integrative Biology, ETH Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Thomas W. Crowther

  33. Department of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada

    Louis-Patrick Haraoui

  34. Centre de recherche Charles-Le Moyne, CISSS Montérégie-Centre, Greenfield Park, Quebec, Canada

    Louis-Patrick Haraoui

  35. Humans & the Microbiome Program, Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Louis-Patrick Haraoui

  36. Department of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, University of Maine, Orono, ME, USA

    Suzanne L. Ishaq

  37. Microbes and Social Equity working group, Orono, ME, USA

    Suzanne L. Ishaq

  38. Archipelago Consulting, Portland, ME, USA

    Kent Redford

Authors
  1. Jack A. Gilbert
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  2. Raquel S. Peixoto
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  3. Amber Hartman Scholz
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  4. Maria Gloria Dominguez Bello
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  5. Lise Korsten
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  6. Gabriele Berg
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  7. Brajesh Singh
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  8. Antje Boetius
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  9. Fengping Wang
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  10. Chris Greening
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  11. Kelly Wrighton
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  12. Seth Bordenstein
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  13. Janet K. Jansson
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  14. Jay T. Lennon
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  15. Valeria Souza
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  16. Torsten Thomas
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  17. Don Cowan
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  18. Thomas W. Crowther
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  19. Nguyen Nguyen
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  20. Lucy Harper
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  21. Louis-Patrick Haraoui
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  22. Suzanne L. Ishaq
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  23. Kent Redford
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Jack A. Gilbert or Raquel S. Peixoto.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Cite this article

Gilbert, J.A., Peixoto, R.S., Scholz, A.H. et al. Launching the IUCN Microbial Conservation Specialist Group as a global safeguard for microbial biodiversity. Nat Microbiol 10, 2359–2360 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-025-02113-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-025-02113-5

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