Launched globally in 2005, the Alliance for Zero Extinction (AZE) was established to designate and effectively conserve the most important sites for global biodiversity conservation.

The Alliance for Zero Extinction engages national and regional governments, multilateral institutions, local and Indigenous communities, and non-governmental biodiversity conservation organizations (see list of AZE members) working to prevent species extinctions. Just over 1,600 of Earth’s most endangered species are restricted to just a single site, making these sites globally irreplaceable from a biodiversity conservation viewpoint.

AZE members have identified 853 AZE sites, which are the areas that hold the last-remaining populations of one or more species evaluated to be Endangered or Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List. These locations must be effectively conserved to prevent the loss of the world’s species at highest risk of extinction, through protected area planning or other effective conservation strategies.

The Alliance for Zero Extinction works to safeguard AZE sites through policy implementation, site conservation, research efforts, and individual efforts.