IUCN Red List

Conservation status
The risk of extinction
Extinction
Extinct Extinct in the Wild
Threatened
Critically Endangered Endangered Vulnerable Threatened
Lower risk
Conservation Dependent Near Threatened Least Concern Domesticated
See also
IUCN IUCN Red List

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ is an extensive inventory of the conservation status of plant and animal species worldwide, with a standardized set of criteria to evaluation their extinction rate. Also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data List, this inventory is produced by the Species Survival Commission (SSC) of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.

The current nine categories by which the extinction risk for a species is evaluated in the IUCN Red List are Extinct, Extinct in the Wild, Critically Endangered, Vulnerable, Near Threatened, Least Concern, Data Deficient, and Not Evaluated. These present categories, and precise criteria to determine the extinction threat status for a species, were adopted in 1994.

The IUCN Red List was first conceived of in 1963, when standards were set for species listing and conservation assessment efforts. In 1988, all bird species were evaluated, and the 1996 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals included the conservation status of all known mammal species. In 2000, the Red List made a single list for the first time of animal and plant assessments, with 18,000 species assessments. Now too large to be easily published as a book, the IUCN Red List is made available online, on a searchable directory.

• • importance

Overview

File:IUCN Red List 2007.png

The percentage of species in several groups which are listed as critical    , endangered    , or vulnerable     on the 2007 IUCN Red List.

The IUCN Red List is created under the auspices of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), a global environmental organization whose membership consists of governments, intergovernmental bodies, and international and national NGOs. The IUCN, which is headquartered in Gland, Switzerland, but has offices in more than 60 nations, is considered the world's main authority on the conservation status of species (Mrosovsky 1997).

The IUCN Red List is considered the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of plant and animal species (IUCN 2008). It presents various categories regarding the extinction status or risk and evaluates them according to a set of quantitative criteria based on biological factors related to extinction risk, such as population size, rate of decline, and so forth. These criteria are considered to be relevant to all species and all regions of the world. A series of Regional Red Lists are produced by countries or organizations, which assess the risk of extinction to species within a political management unit.

IUCN Red List is widely considered to be the most objective and authoritative system for classifying species in terms of the risk of extinction (BI 2008).

The IUCN Red List is produced by the IUCN Species Survival Commission, a network of about 7000 species experts. The IUCN Red List Partnership are members and partners of IUCN that are making significant technical or financial contributions to the IUCN Red List and consists of four organizations: Conservation International, BirdLife International, NatureServe, and Zoological Society of London.

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. BirdLife International is considered the Red List Authority (RLA) for birds (IUCN 2008).

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).

Categories

File:Status iucn3.1.svg

Summary of 2006 IUCN Red List categories.

Species in the IUCN Red List are classified in nine groups:

• Extinct (EX)
• Extinct in the Wild (EW)
• Critically Endangered (CR)
• Endangered (EN)
• Vulnerable (VU)
• Near Threatened (NT)
• Least Concern (LC)
• Data Deficient (DD)
• Not Evaluated (NE)

When discussing the IUCN Red List, the official term "threatened" is a grouping of three categories: Critically Endangered, Endangered, and Vulnerable.

set through criteria such as rate of decline, population size, area of geographic distribution, and degree of population and distribution fragmentation.

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species uses the term endangered species as a specific category of imperilment, rather than as a general term. Under the IUCN Categories and Criteria, endangered species is between critically endangered and vulnerable. Also critically endangered species may also be counted as endangered species and fill all the criteria

The more general term used by the IUCN for species at risk of extinction is threatened species, which also includes the less-at-risk category of vulnerable species together with endangered and critically endangered.

IUCN categories include:

• Extinct: the last remaining member of the species has died, or is presumed beyond reasonable doubt to have died. Examples: Thylacine, Dodo, Passenger Pigeon
• Extinct in the wild: captive individuals survive, but there is no free-living, natural population. Examples:South China Tiger, Alagoas Curassow
• Critically endangered: faces an extremely high risk of extinction in the immediate future. Examples: Arakan Forest Turtle, Javan Rhino, Brazilian Merganser
• Endangered: faces a very high risk of extinction in the near future. Examples: Blue Whale, Snow Leopard, African Wild Dog, Tiger, Albatross, Crowned Solitary Eagle
• Vulnerable: faces a high risk of extinction in the medium-term. Examples: Cheetah, Gaur, Lion, Wolverine
• Conservation Dependent: The following animal is not severely threatened, but the animal must depend on conservation programs. Examples: Spotted Hyena, Leopard Shark, Black Caiman
• Near Threatened: may be considered threatened in the near future. Examples: Blue-billed Duck, Solitary Eagle, Small-clawed Otter , Maned Wolf
• Least Concern: no immediate threat to the survival of the species. Examples: Brown Rat, Nootka Cypress, Wood Pigeon

1994 categories and criteria

File:Status iucn2.3.svg

1994 IUCN Red List categories (version 2.3), used for species which have not been reassessed since 2001.

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 has not stated whether a "Possibly Extinct in the Wild" category should also be added, although it is mentioned that Spix's Macaw has this status. "Possibly Extinct" can be considered a subcategory of "Critically Endangered", like the Chinese River Dolphin, which is considered critically endangered.

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 C.E., unchanged from the 2004 release. This was an increase of 18 from the 766 listed as of 2000^{[citation needed]}. 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 have 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.

2008 release

The 2008 Red List was released on 6 October, 2008, at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Barcelona, and "has confirmed an extinction crisis, with almost one in four [mammals] at risk of disappearing forever" . The study shows at least 1,141 of the 5,487 mammals on Earth are known to be threatened with extinction, and 836 are listed as Data Deficient.

Criticism

The IUCN Red List has come under criticism on the grounds of secrecy (or at least poor documentation) surrounding the sources of data. The allegations have led to efforts by the IUCN to improve its documentation and data quality, and to include peer reviews of taxa on the Red List. The list is also open to petitions against its classifications, on the basis of documentation or criteria.

It has been suggested that the IUCN Red List and similar works are prone to misuse by governments and other groups, to draw possibly inappropriate conclusions on the state of the environment or to affect exploitation of natural resources.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

BI 2008

IUCN. 2008. About the IUCN Red List

• IUCN, 2006. Summary Statistics for Globally Threatened Species (1, 3a, 3b). Retrieved 5 May, 2006.
• IUCN, 1994. Categories & Criteria (version 2.3). Retrieved February 12, 2005.
• IUCN, 2001. Categories & Criteria (version 3.1). Retrieved February 12, 2005.

• Rodrigues, A.S.L., Pilgrim, J.D., Lamoreux, J.F., Hoffmann, M. & Brooks, T.M. 2006. The value of the IUCN Red List for conservation Trends in Ecology & Evolution 21(2): 71-76.

External links

• IUCN Red List of Threatened Species home
• Search the Red List

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

• IUCN_Red_List  ^history

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

• History of "IUCN Red List"

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.