Stenderma rufum (the red fruit bat) lives in a small geographic range in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. It ekes out its living in the tropical canopy by dining on fruit from the local trumpet trees and sierra palms. Threatened by human disturbance and hurricanes, the little bat is classified as a vulnerable species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.

IUCN’s director general Julia Marton-Lefèvre will talk about the Red List in her keynote address during the Esri UC Plenary Session. The Red List database is the world’s most comprehensive information source about the conservation status of wild species. It contains information about 65,000 species; 30,000 of the species’ descriptions include geographic references.

This year, the organization is launching its IUCN Red List of Threatened Species map browser. The portal, which is built on ArcGIS 10.1 for Server by Blue Raster, brings together six different databases and links to thousands of geotagged wildlife images.

Marton-Lefèvre will describe some of the ways that IUCN champions the ideas of valuing and conserving nature and of using nature-based solutions to advance human well-being.

“Our mission is to influence society to conserve nature and natural resources in an equitable and sustainable manner,” said Marton-Lefèvre. “I am glad to be the keynote speaker at the Esri UC this year, because Esri and IUCN share a common vision of harmony between nature and people.”