The IUCN Global Springs Task Force is an inter-Commission initiative bringing together scientists, conservation practitioners, policy experts, and knowledge holders from around the world to advance the understanding, recognition, and protection of springs.
Small ecosystems with global importance
Springs occur where groundwater reaches the Earth's surface, creating ecological connections between groundwater, surface water, and terrestrial environments. Although often small in area, springs can support exceptionally high biodiversity, including species found nowhere else.
Springs also sustain rivers, wetlands, wildlife, and human communities. For Indigenous Peoples and local communities around the world, many springs carry profound cultural, spiritual, and livelihood importance.
Yet springs remain among the world's most overlooked freshwater ecosystems. Groundwater extraction, climate change, land-use change, infrastructure development, contamination, and the loss of traditional stewardship practices are degrading and eliminating springs across continents and biomes.
Springs often fall through the cracks
Despite their importance, springs are rarely mapped consistently, lack a universally applied classification system, and remain poorly represented in many global conservation frameworks.
Their small size, isolation, and complex connections to groundwater make them difficult to address through conservation approaches designed primarily for larger rivers, wetlands, landscapes, or protected areas. Global springs data are fragmented, conservation methods vary widely, and many spring-dependent species remain poorly documented.
The Task Force was created to help close this gap by establishing a shared scientific foundation for understanding, assessing, prioritizing, and conserving springs worldwide.
Connecting species, ecosystems, and protected areas
Springs do not fit neatly within a single conservation discipline. Protecting them requires expertise in biodiversity, ecology, hydrogeology, ecosystem management, protected areas, policy, and community stewardship.
The Task Force therefore works across three IUCN Commissions: the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA), the Species Survival Commission (SSC), and the Commission on Ecosystem Management (CEM). This structure connects expertise in species conservation, ecosystem integrity, and protected-area management within a coordinated global effort.
A shared framework for global springs conservation
Define and Inventory
Develop globally consistent definitions, classifications, and methods for identifying, documenting, and mapping springs.
Build a Global Database
Bring together existing inventories, scientific information, field data, and conservation assessments in an accessible global springs information system.
Assess Condition
Develop methods and standards for evaluating ecological condition, hydrological connectivity, vulnerability, and protection of spring ecosystems.
Identify Priorities
Identify spring ecosystems, species, and geographic regions of exceptional conservation importance or urgent risk.
Strengthen Global Recognition
Improve the representation of springs within mechanisms including the IUCN Red List, Key Biodiversity Areas, Ramsar Sites, protected areas, OECMs, and other conservation frameworks.
Develop Guidance
Produce practical guidance, best practices, and conservation tools that can be used by governments, conservation organizations, practitioners, and communities.
From foundations to global guidance
Year 1 — Foundations and Mapping
Establish definitions and inventory standards, build the global expert network, and identify major geographic and conservation information gaps.
Year 2 — Data and Assessment
Begin development of the global springs database, advance assessments of spring-dependent species, and develop ecological and hydrological assessment methods.
Year 3 — Prioritization and Strategy
Identify priority springs, species, and regions and connect these priorities with conservation mechanisms and policy frameworks.
Year 4 — Guidance and Capacity
Produce conservation guidance, management best practices, action plans, policy resources, and capacity-building materials for global application.
Global expertise, shared knowledge
The Task Force brings together a geographically and disciplinarily diverse network of researchers, practitioners, conservation leaders, Indigenous knowledge holders, and policy experts.
It is designed to collaborate with existing IUCN Specialist Groups, freshwater initiatives, conservation organizations, governments, universities, and communities rather than duplicate their work. Through collaboration and shared standards, the Task Force aims to connect regional expertise into a coherent global effort.
Coordination and institutional support are provided by the Spring Stewardship Institute in the United States and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in South Africa.