STAR: Strategic Design and Global Adaptation of Complex Science
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) | Global Science Team
Country (ies): United States | United Kingdom
Scope: Global
Year: 2025 - 2026
01
CONTEXT
IUCN is a global environmental network founded in 1948 that articulates science, public policy, and technical action. It is composed of Member organizations—including States, governments, Indigenous Peoples, and civil society organizations—that generate knowledge, set standards, and guide decisions for nature conservation and the sustainable use of resources.
The STAR (Species Threat Abatement and Restoration) metric is a spatially explicit scientific framework that allows for quantifying opportunities to reduce extinction risk and guiding conservation actions with measurable impact.
In 2025, the IUCN Science Team needed to present and socialize the work on the application of STAR at the World Conservation Congress, ensuring its understanding and use by actors with different roles: governments, responsible for public policies, national targets, and planning; and civil society organizations, in charge of programs, projects, and on-the-ground implementation.
02
CHALLENGE
Translating highly specialized scientific information—based on spatial analysis and a robust methodological framework—into a set of clear, visually accessible materials ready for use by audiences with varying levels of technical knowledge.
- Remaining rigorous to the scientific framework without oversimplifying or distorting concepts.
- Actionable for two audiences with different needs (governments and civil society).
- Scalable and globally consistent (same narrative, same concepts, three languages).
- Ready for public deployment in a high-visibility institutional environment such as the World Conservation Congress.
03
SOLUTION
A Global STAR Dissemination and Adoption Kit was designed, composed of differentiated materials for Governments and Civil Society, following a clear logic: translating scientific complexity into practical use while maintaining rigor and coherence.
What does this kit enable?
- Rapid alignment and adoption: It offers a common language and a standard structure so that different actors understand STAR in the same way and can apply it without friction.
- Informed decision-making: It turns the scientific framework into ready-to-use tools to support the prioritization, planning, implementation, and communication of results.
- International scalability: Materials were translated into Spanish, English, and French to be shared and replicated in diverse contexts, ensuring narrative, visual, and terminological consistency worldwide.
- Dissemination and training in a single package: It integrates "explanatory" and "practical use" pieces to accelerate learning and appropriation, both in institutional spaces and on digital channels.
04
IMPACT
- Effective bridge between science and action: The Science Team's work was transformed into an effective tool for non-academic audiences without losing precision.
- Dual-track adoption: The kit reduces the gap between public decision-making and on-the-ground implementation, facilitating coordination and coherence among actors.
- Global standardization ready for deployment: Final and editable materials that strengthen consistency, repeatability, and sustained use across multiple countries and teams.
