In March, the first meeting of the Committee for Scientific Standards for the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems was held in Helsinki. This comprised a 3 days meeting of about 25 people (see photo below) from a wide range of ecological and conservation backgrounds, from threat analysis, ecosystem science, vegetation mapping and so forth. We made a lot of progress, and it was very enjoyable. Lucie Bland writes about the meeting here.

2015 is already looking quite productive for the Red List of Ecosystems, with 2 papers out, and many more to come in a special issue of Austral Ecology, several papers of which are currently available in their Early View section:

Keith, D.A., Rodríguez, J.P., Brooks, T.M., Burgman, M.A., Barrow, E.G., Bland, L., Comer, P.J., Franklin, J., Link, J., McCarthy, M.A., Miller, R.M., Murray, N.J., Nel, J., Nicholson, E., Olivera-Miranda, M.A., Regan, T.J., Rodríguez-Clark, K.M., Rouget, M. & Spalding, M.D. (2015) The IUCN Red List of Ecosystems: motivations, challenges and applications. Conservation Letters, in press [link].

Rodríguez, J.P., Keith, D.A., Rodríguez-Clark, K.M., Murray, N.J., Nicholson, E., Regan, T.J., Miller, R.M., Barrow, E.G., Bland, L.M., Boe, K., Brooks, T.M., Oliveira-Miranda, M.A., Spalding, M. & Wit, P. (2014) A practical guide to the application of the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems criteria. Philosophical Transactions of Royal Society B, 370: 20140003, DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2014.0003 [link].

This website gives an overview of the research underway on the IUCN Red list of Ecosystems; look here for information about the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems and applications.