India, Oct. 31 -- "Awareness is so 18th-century. Awareness alone won't change anything. How do you convert awareness to participation, and participation to involvement: that is the question," says Vivek Menon.

This approach - of movement, action, collaboration and more movement - is part of the reason Menon recently became the first person from outside Europe and North America to head the Species Survival Commission (SSC), a core body within the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

SSC consists of over 200 specialist groups and 11,000 volunteer scientists. It drives updates to the international research organisation's crucial Red List of Threatened Species, which determines which animals need greater protection.

In th...