IUCN Red List Of Threatened Species Flashcards
(14 cards)
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
Formed in 1948
Only institution bringing together governments and civil society organizations with one purpose: advance sustainable development and create a just world that values and conserves nature
Encourage international cooperation
Provide scientific knowledge and tools to guide conservation action.
Red List history
Started in 1964 by IUCN and run by Special Survival Commission (SSC) within IUCN
In 1994 IUCN introduces a scientifically rigorous method for assessments
There has since been several updates of the methodology
All known birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, sharks, corals, cycads, and conifers has been assessed
Who does the work?
Red List partnerships and >160 Red List specialist groups
The Red List aim
Provide an easily understood and widely used system for classifying wild species at high risk of extinction
The Red List foundation
Likelihood of a species becoming extinct in the near future, given current knowledge about population trends, range and threats
Categories and Criteria
Used to assess eukaryotic taxa at the global level
- can also be applied at national level
Used to assess wild populations inside their natural range (including populations resulting from benign introductions)
Different categories of the Red List
Species are assigned one of nine categories
- Extinct
- Extinct in the Wild
- Critically Endangered
- Endangered
- Vulnerable
- Near Threatened
- Least Concern
- Data Deficient
- Not Evaluated
Criteria applied to the three threatened categories (CR; EN; VU)
How to get on the Red List
Assessment made by experts (the 160 species specialist groups)
Involved everything from indigenous knowledge, scientific work, expert opinions
Assessments are peer-reviewed
Status is assigned through workshops
Red List statistics
Increasing number of assessed species (> 150,000)
NOT all are threatened
Many reassessments (birds + mammals)
Increasing taxonomic coverage
Red List Index
Species, on average, getting more (line declining) or less (line is improving) threatened over time
Key area for threatened species
Especially South East Asia
And the Western coast of South America
As viewed through the Red List lens- are things looking good?
Still many species not assessed (96.1 % of 2.2 million known species)
Still many species not covered by protected areas
Extinction risk is increasing across taxonomic groups
Challenges for the Red List
Criteria assessed by experts and can vary between taxonomic groups
Still only a small sample of species
No clear comparison between assessment of the same species across time
Not site specific / “below global level”
Criteria seems better suited for some taxonomic groups than others
- short timespan
- small ranges
Based on the availability of experts - no species “X” experts engaged in the process = species “X” not on the red list
How representative is a list of birds, mammals, amphibians, and corals for all other species?
How to validate the decisions?
Summary
Powerful tool for highlighting the status of threatened species
Based on the best available information and accountability in methods
Groups species from Least Concern to Critically Endangered
Trends on higher taxonomic levels shows declines across the board
Link between threats and changes in red list status unclear
Still many methodological challenges to improving the red list
