Everything about The Iucn Red List totally explained
The
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (also known as the
IUCN Red List or
Red Data List), created in 1963, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global
conservation status of plant and animal
species. The
International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) is the world's main authority on the conservation status of species.
The IUCN Red List is set upon precise criteria to evaluate the
extinction risk of thousands of species and subspecies. These criteria are relevant to all species and all regions of the world. The aim is to convey the urgency of conservation issues to the public and policy makers, as well as help the international community to try to reduce species extinction.
Major species assessors include
BirdLife International, the
Institute of Zoology (the research division of the
Zoological Society of London), the
World Conservation Monitoring Centre, and many Specialist Groups within the IUCN's
Species Survival Commission (SSC). Collectively, assessments by these organizations and groups account for nearly half the species on the Red List.
IUCN Red List is widely considered to be the most objective and authoritative system for classifying species in terms of the risk of extinction.
The IUCN aims to have the category of every species re-evaluated every 5 years if possible, or at least every ten years. This is done in a
peer reviewed manner through IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) Specialist Groups, which are Red List Authorities responsible for a species, group of species or specific geographic area, or in the case of
BirdLife International, an entire class (
Aves). There are over 7000 extant species in the 2006 Red List which have not had their category evaluated since 1996.
2006 release
The
2006 Red List, released on
4 May,
2006 evaluated 40,168 species as a whole, plus an additional 2,160
subspecies,
varieties, aquatic
stocks, and
subpopulations.
From the species evaluated as a whole, 16,118 were considered
threatened. Of these, 7,725 were
animals, 8,390 were
plants, and three were
lichen and
mushrooms.
This release listed 784 species extinctions recorded since
1500 CE, unchanged from the
2004 release. This was an increase of 18 from the 766 listed as of
2000. Each year a small number of "extinct" species may be rediscovered, becoming
Lazarus species, or may be reclassified as "data deficient". In
2002, the extinction list dropped to 759 species, but has been rising ever since.
2007 release
On
September 12, 2007, the
World Conservation Union (IUCN) released the
2007 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, the latest update to their
online database of
species'
extinction risks. In this release, they've raised their
classification of both the
Western Lowland Gorilla (
Gorilla gorilla gorilla) and the
Cross River Gorilla (
Gorilla gorilla diehli) from
Endangered to
Critically Endangered, which is the last
category before
Extinct in the Wild, due to
Ebola virus and
poaching, along with other factors. Russ Mittermeier, chief of
Swiss-based IUCN's Primate Specialist Group, stated that 16,306 species are endangered with extinction, 188 more than in 2006 (total of 41,415 species on the Red List). The Red List includes the
Sumatran Orangutan (
Pongo abelii) in the Critically Endangered category and the
Bornean Orangutan (
Pongo pygmaeus) in the Endangered category.
Categories
Species are classified in nine groups, set through criteria such as rate of decline, population size, area of geographic distribution, and degree of population and distribution fragmentation.
When discussing the IUCN Red List, the official term "
threatened" is a grouping of three categories: Critically Endangered, Endangered, and Vulnerable.
1994 categories and criteria
The older
1994 has only a single "Lower Risk" category which contained three subcategories:
Conservation Dependent (LR/cd)
Near Threatened (LR/nt)
Least Concern (LR/lc)
In the 2001 system, Near Threatened and Least Concern have now become their own categories, while Conservation Dependent is no longer used and has been merged into Near Threatened.
Possibly Extinct
The additional category of Possibly Extinct (PE) is used by Birdlife International, the Red List Authority for birds for the IUCN Red List. Birdlife International has recommended PE become an official category. BirdLife International hasn't stated whether a "Possibly Extinct in the Wild" category should also be added, although it's mentioned that Spix's Macaw has this status. "Possibly Extinct" can be considered a subcategory of "Critically Endangered".
Criticism
The IUCN Red List has come under criticism on the grounds of secrecy surrounding the sources of data, among other allegations.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Iucn Red List'.
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