A newly released study describes how researchers collaborated to design the first comprehensive roadmap for protecting microbial life. The effort was led by Professor Jack Gilbert, President of Applied Microbiology International.
The work appears in the article titled ‘Safeguarding Microbial Biodiversity: Microbial Conservation Specialist Group (MCSG) within the Species Survival Commission of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’, published in Sustainable Microbiology, an AMI journal.
In July 2025, the IUCN formally created the MCSG within its Species Survival Commission. The group is co-chaired by Professor Gilbert and Raquel Peixoto (KAUST / ISME). Its formation followed a May workshop led by Professor Gilbert that brought together conservation specialists and microbiologists to explore how traditional conservation goals apply in a world driven by microbial processes.
“This is the first global coalition dedicated to safeguarding microbial biodiversity, which is the ‘invisible 99% of life’, to ensure that microbes are recognized as essential to the planet’s ecological, climate, and health systems,” Professor Gilbert said.
He added: “I think this reframes conservation from saving individual species to preserving the networks of invisible life that make visible life possible — a paradigm shift toward planetary health. It also gives us a really good look into the microbial tools that can support conservation action — so that we may use microbiology to solve the world’s biggest problems.”
Over the past two years, the founding members have assembled an international community of microbiologists, ecologists, legal experts, and Indigenous knowledge holders from more than 30 countries. Together, they created the first microbial conservation roadmap, outlining five core components of the IUCN Species Conservation Cycle:
