 IUCN was established on 5 October 1948, in Fontainebleau, France, when representatives of governments and conservation organizations spurred by UNESCO signed a formal act constituting the International Union for the Protection of Nature (IUPN).The initiative to set up the new organisation came from UNESCO and especially from its first Director General, the British biologist Julian Huxley.At the time of its founding IUPN was the only international organisation focusing on the entire spectrum of nature conservation (an international organisation for the protection of birds, now BirdLife International, had been established in 1922.)