Professor Eric I Ameca from the Department of Ecology, School of Life Sciences, Beijing Normal University was elected in October 2022 as a member of the China Species Specialist Group of the Species Survival Commission of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). IUCN is the global authority on the status of the natural world and the measures needed to safeguard it.

The purpose of the China Species Specialist Group (CSG) will be to co-ordinate expertise across taxonomic groups and disciplines to support government and stakeholders, and facilitate evidence-based decision making and the development of policies that will contribute towards reversing biodiversity loss in the country.

IUCN appointed Professor Yan Xie from the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences as the chair of CSSG. The CSSG currently consists of more than 150 Chinese experts and scholars with a range of expertise in species conservation in China. Professor Eric I Ameca of Beijing Normal University is the only foreign scholar elected to the IUCN-SSC China Species Specialist Group. Professor Ameca's team research how species biology may increase or limit vulnerability to climate change; what are their ecological and evolutionary consequences; and how areas of conservation value for species become threaten by impacts of climate change and human activities.

Eric Ameca has assessed the congruence between hotspots of vertebrate richness, flood prone areas and refugia across priority areas for biodiversity conservation in China. Likewise, he identified areas used by people inside giant panda nature reserves where risk assessment to natural disturbances is needed to avoid an increment in human interferences on panda habitat that could amplify the effects of extreme climatic events.

In addition, Professor Eric Ameca is Steering Committee member of the IUCN SSC Climate Change Specialist Group which has the mission of supporting and strengthening nature conservation in a changing climate.