The Amphibian Specialist Group strives to conserve biological diversity by stimulating, developing, and executing practical programs to conserve amphibians and their habitats around the world. This will be achieved by supporting a global web of partners to develop funding, capacity and technology transfer to achieve shared, strategic amphibian conservation goals.

In September 2005 in Washington, DC, a Summit was convened by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and Conservation International to bring together the world leaders in amphibian conservation. The purpose: to devise a global strategy of action to arrest amphibian declines and extinctions. The Summit produced a declaration (PDF) and a more comprehensive Amphibian Conservation Action Plan (ACAP) will be published in early 2007. Because of the scale of response required to tackle the current amphibian crisis, the decision was made to merge the Declining Amphibian Populations Task Force (DAPTF), the Global Amphibian Specialist Group (GASG) and the Global Amphibian Assessment into a unified body devoted to Global amphibian conservation: The IUCN/SSC Amphibian Specialist Group (ASG).

The ASG takes IUCN's Specialist Group model to the next level of effectiveness through the establishment of a Secretariat and that will serve as dynamic hub to coordinate Regional centers and a global web of stakeholders and to leverage the intellectual, institutional, and financial capacity towards shared, strategic amphibian conservation goals.

The Executive Committee of the ASG comprises two Chairs - Claude Gascon and James Collins - an Executive Officer and three divisions, each headed by a director.; see illustration below.

In coordination with division directors, Regional Working Group Heads will proactively support the development of projects in their region. Thematic Working Groups will disseminate new findings among the three Divisions and the Regional Working Groups.

The ASG is rising to the challenge posed by the amphibian crisis by engaging all sectors of the wider conservation community to harness the global intellectual and institutional capacity necessary to transcend the current paradigms of conservation biology. The Conservation Division promotes and supports the conservation of threatened amphibian species in all parts of the world. By strengthening partnerships among developed country and developing country institutions and forging links with groups such as IUCN's other Specialist Groups, the ASG is building capacity in important regions and ensuring that amphibians are incorporated into conservation plans where they have previously been neglected.

The Research Division of the ASG works closely with research partners from the global network of national and regional working groups to apply a more strategic and coordinated approach to research into the causes of global amphibian declines and to disseminating the results worldwide. The Research Division works to narrow knowledge gaps through targeted research agendas for poorly known regions and groups and strives to bridge the gap between science and conservation.

The Assessment Division regularly assesses the conservation status of every amphibian species in the world through the Global Amphibian Assessment (GAA) and feed this information into the setting of conservation and targeted research priorities worldwide. Emphasis will be given to discriminating between real and apparent declines. Periodic analyses of the database will be undertaken and the findings communicated to the global network. Findings will also be printed on CDs and distributed to those regions where internet access is problematic. Information will be disseminated in paper form where applicable via working groups through workshops and meetings.