690 Conservation News


5% of species decreased in score, yet 45% are held in fewer facilities. Of the taxa that decreased in score, 14 are now absent from collections. Of the 386 species that are now held in fewer facilities, 152 are protected by the Plant Extinction Prevention Program and six are cultivated only at a single facility. However, 24 species protected by the Program have improved in score and are now held in more facilities. Since 2020, seed banks have secured an additional 138 species of conservation importance. Ex situ conservation prevents extinction and supports re-


covery, and continued support is needed to secure 129 taxa. Recommended actions include prioritizing resources for the Plant Extinction Prevention Program, collecting, germinat- ing aging seed collections, expanding greenhouse capacity, duplicating collections across facilities, reviewing best prac- tices and sharing information between facilities. If you are interested in more detailed information, or manage Hawaiian collections missed in this assessment, please contact the Laukahi Network Coordinator (coordinator@ laukahi.org).


KIMBERLY SHAY1,5 (coordinator@laukahi.org),


BROOKE CROSE2,MATTHEW KEIR3,5 and LAURENWEISENBERGER4,5 1Laukahi: The Hawai‘i Plant Conservation Network,


Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. 2Harold L. Lyon Arboretum, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. 3Division of Forestry andWildlife – Department of Land and Natural Resources, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. 4U.S. Fish &Wildlife Service, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. 5IUCN Species Survival Commission Hawaiian Islands Plant Specialist Group


This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence CC BY 4.0.


IUCN Species Survival Commission Sponge Specialist Group


In June 2024, the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) launched the new Sponge Specialist Group, which will focus on both marine and freshwater sponges and their habitats. Sponges (phylum Porifera) have shaped benthic ecosystems for .600 million years and are widely distributed across marine, freshwater and transitional systems. In the marine realmin particular, sponges formhighly structured habitats (sponge grounds, gardens, reefs and animal forests) that play key functional roles and deliver numerous ecosystem goods and services. They serve as habitat and nurseries for various species, including commercially exploited fish, and bath sponges have been harvested for centuries for their spongin skeleton, supporting the livelihoods of local com- munities. Sponges are also recognized as prolific sources of bioactive compounds with pharmacological potential and as biomimetic inspiration for tissue engineering, with


promising applications for human health. However, sponges and their habitats are increasingly threatened by human activities (e.g. damage caused by fisheries, habitat degradation, climate change and deep-sea mining) in areas both within and beyond national jurisdictions (Xavier et al., 2023, Frontiers in Marine Science, 10, 1132451). There are currently c. 9,660 recognized species of sponges, in four classes, but actual diversity is estimated to be.25,000 species. Themajority are demosponges (Demos- pongiae, c. 8,010 species), followed by calcareous sponges (Calcarea, c. 820 species), glass sponges (Hexactinellida, c. 705 species) and Homoscleromorpha (c. 135 species). Although most species are marine, there are c. 190 species of freshwater demosponges (de Voogd et al., 2024, World Porifera Database, marinespecies.org/porifera). The new Specialist Group will bring together scientists


and conservation practitioners to protect sponge biodiver- sity and the ecosystem services they provide, and will collab- orate with the IUCN SSC Marine and Freshwater Conserva- tion Committees and the IUCN SSC Marine Invertebrates Red List Authority network. It will liaise with several key SSC groups, particularly those focusing on other habitat- forming taxa (e.g. corals, seaweeds, seagrasses and man- groves), to exchange knowledge, coordinate efforts and en- hance conservation impact. The group is also closely linked with SponBIODIV (sponbiodiv.org), a project that delivers knowledge and tools for the sustainable management and conservation of marine sponge diversity, funded by Biodiversa+, the European Biodiversity Partnership under the 2021–2022 BiodivProtect joint call for research propo- sals, co-funded by the European Commission (GA No. 101052342). Follow us as we advance sponge conservation from local initiatives to a global movement.


JOANA XAVIER1,2,3 (jxavier@ciimar.up.pt), TOUFIEK SAMAAI3,4,5 ,MONIKA BÖHM6,7 and


CORALIE PALMER6,8 1CIIMAR/CIMAR LA, Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research, University of Porto, Matosinhos, Portugal. 2Department of Natural History, University Museum of Bergen, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway. 3IUCN Species Survival Commission Sponge Specialist Group. 4Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Oceans and Coasts, Foreshore, Cape Town, South Africa. 5Department of Biodiversity and Conservation, University of theWestern Cape, Bellville, Cape Town, South Africa. 6Global Center for Species Survival, Indianapolis Zoo, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. 7IUCN Species Survival Commission Freshwater Conservation Committee. 8IUCN Species Survival Commission Marine Conservation Committee


This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence CC BY 4.0.


Oryx, 2024, 58(6), 689–699 © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605324001091


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