Photo 1.1
First discovered in 1988, the beautiful Pittosporum tannianum (Critically Endangered) from New Caledonia was thought to have gone Extinct in 1992. But in 2002 it was rediscovered. Three plants are now known to exist, giving this species a tenuous lifeline to avoid extinction for a second time. This story epitomizes that of so many species on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™.
Photo: © Bernard Suprin.
What is the overall status of biodiversity, what rate is it being lost at, where is it being lost, and what are the causes of decline? As the world begins to respond to the current crisis of biodiversity loss, this information is needed to design and implement effective conservation strategies and to communicate the scope and severity of the problem. The ability to monitor changes in the status of biodiversity is also essential for measuring our success or failure in halting biodiversity loss. However, providing this information is a large and complex task and will require multiple measures to assess the status and trends of the many aspects of biodiversity. For example, different measures may be necessary to assess genes, populations, species, and ecosystems.
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™, known as the IUCN Red List, is one approach for assessing and monitoring the status of biodiversity. The IUCN Red List is supported by the Red List Consortium, comprised of the IUCN – The World Conservation Union (in particular the Species Survival Commission), BirdLife International, Conservation International (in particular the Center for Applied Biodiversity Science), and NatureServe. Together these organizations provide the world's largest knowledge base on the global status of species. The 2004 Red List contains the global status and supporting information on 38,047 species and is available on the web at http://www.iucnredlist.org.
This analysis of the information contained in the 2004 IUCN Red List aims to provide insight into the status and trends of the world's species, with a focus on those at greatest risk of extinction. Specifically, we highlight: the taxonomic groups that are at the greatest risk of extinction; recent documented extinctions; trends in the status of threatened species; regions of the world where threatened species tend to be found; the threats that are driving species towards extinction; the social and economic context in which extinctions are taking place; and the conservation responses that are available.
The aim of the IUCN Red List Programme is to provide the general public, conservationists, non-governmental organizations, the media, decision makers and policy makers with the most comprehensive scientifically rigorous information on the conservation status of the world's species, so that informed decisions and actions can be taken. The IUCN Red List is intended to be policy-relevant, and it can be used to inform conservation planning and priority setting processes, but it is not intended to be prescriptive.
IUCN has been producing lists of threatened species since the 1960s (Scott et al. 1987; Burton 2003) and the first Red Data Book was published in 1966 (Simon 1966), although prototypes were in circulation from 1962 (Burton 2003). The earlier Red Lists were produced to highlight specific species that were believed to be threatened with extinction and therefore in need of conservation attention. The mandate of the IUCN Red List has now expanded to identify large-scale patterns and trends in the status of species. Identifying taxonomic groups or regions that tend to have species that are facing a high or low probability of extinction can be accomplished by conducting multi-species analyses. These patterns are explored in Sections 2 and 5. Identifying trends in the status of species is more complicated and requires the re-assessment of a group of species at regular intervals and the identification of genuine changes. Section 4 presents the first Red List Indices, showing the trends in the status of threatened birds and amphibians.
Fundamental to the objectivity and the scientific rigour of the IUCN Red List are the Red List Categories and Criteria developed in 1994 (IUCN 1994a) and revised in 2001 (IUCN 2001). There are nine categories: Extinct, Extinct in the Wild, Critically Endangered, Endangered, Vulnerable, Near Threatened, Least Concern, Data Deficient, and Not Evaluated (see Appendix 2a). Every species falls into one of these categories. Quantitative criteria have been developed for the categories Critically Endangered, Endangered and Vulnerable (see Appendix 2a). Species listed within each of these categories are believed to share a similar probability of extinction risk. However, the Red List Categories and Criteria are coarse and do not reflect precise probabilities of extinction risk.
Species falling into the categories of Critically Endangered, Endangered and Vulnerable are collectively described as ‘threatened’ , and are the focus of much of the analysis and discussion presented in this Global Species Assessment. However, not all of the species listed on the IUCN Red List are threatened with high risk of extinction. The IUCN Red List, albeit not yet comprehensively, also includes information on conservation successes, and as data collection and reporting efforts expand, it will also record more completely the status of species listed as Least Concern.
The information contained in the IUCN Red List is provided principally by the Specialist Groups of the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) and from BirdLife International's network, with additional information coming from other members of the Red List Consortium, and partner organizations. The SSC Specialist Group Network comprises nearly 8,000 specialists with representatives in almost every country of the world. Two recent initiatives, both implemented under the umbrella of the SSC, in collaboration with the Center for Applied Biodiversity Science of Conservation International, and NatureServe, have helped to greatly improve the coverage of the 2004 Red List. These are the Global Amphibian Assessment (GAA) and the Global Mammal Assessment (GMA). These are large-scale assessments that aim to determine the status of all species within a taxonomic group as well as to provide baseline information, for example, on species' distribution and ecology (for more information on these global assessment processes see Appendix 1).
In addition to providing information on the conservation status of individual species, the information from the IUCN Red List is used in a variety of ways. These include: the use of Red List data for guiding the listing of individual species in national or international legislation (e.g., the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)); incorporation of the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria into national and regional Red List programmes; the development of conservation planning and prioritization tools, including the identification of important sites for biodiversity (e.g., protected areas, Ramsar or World Heritage sites, Key Biodiversity Areas, Important Bird Areas, Important Plant Areas, and Alliance for Zero Extinction sites); the identification of priority species for conservation action and recovery planning; and the use of Red List data for educational programmes.
The 2004 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ features a far more extensive analysis of the patterns and trends of threatened species than ever before, and this is presented here as the first Global Species Assessment. Staff members of IUCN, BirdLife International, Conservation International, and the Zoological Society of London have prepared this document. The 13 authors have reviewed and commented on all of the sections here. The lead authors of the sections are as follows: Jonathan Baillie, Craig Hilton- Taylor and Simon Stuart (Section 1); Craig Hilton-Taylor and Caroline Pollock (Section 2); Jonathan Baillie and Zoe Cokeliss (Section 3); Stuart Butchart and Alison Stattersfield (Section 4); Thomas Brooks and Michael Hoffmann (Section 5); Simon Stuart, Stuart Butchart, Alison Stattersfield, Georgina Mace and Janice Chanson (Section 6); Janice Chanson (Section 7); Ana Rodrigues (Section 8); and Sue Mainka, Leon Bennun and Simon Stuart (Section 9). The data underlying this analysis are available at http://www.iucnredlist.org.
The IUCN Red List includes more than 38,000 species of plants and animals including Photo 1.2 (top left
- Photo: © Antonio Di Croce.) the Scimitar-horned Oryx Oryx damah (Extinct in the Wild) formerly from North Africa and now part of a major reintroduction programme; Photo 1.3 (top right
- Photo: © Jack Jeffrey Photography.) the Akepa Loxops coccineus (Endangered) a honeycreeper endemic to Hawaii; Photo 1.4 (middle left
- Photo: © Jeremy Stafford-Deitsch. ) the Basking Shark Cetorhinus maximus (Vulnerable), a widely distributed cold-water pelagic species that is vulnerable to overfishing; Photo 1.5 (middle right
- Photo: © Michael Samways.) the Harlequin Sprite Damselfly Pseudagrion newtoni (Vulnerable) which disappeared from its type locality in South Africa, has since been found at another site where cattle grazing of river banks and the spread of invasive alien trees has been curbed; Photo 1.6 (bottom left
- Photo: © Anthony G. Miller.) the Dragon Tree Dracaena cinnabari (Vulnerable) forming characteristic woodlands on the island of Soqotra,
Yemen, but under threat due to possible over-utilization and climate change; and Photo 1.7 (bottom right
- Photo: © Piotr Naskrecki.) the Mount Nimba Viviparous Toad Nimbaphrynoides occidentalis (Critically Endangered) occurs only in a small area of Mount Nimba in Guinea and Cote d'Ivoire, where it lives in montane grassland, a habitat that is in grave danger as a result of plans to mine iron ore.