Global Mammal Assessment

For over four decades, IUCN - the World Conservation Union, through the Species Survival Commission (SSC), has been assessing the conservation status of species, subspecies, and populations on a global scale in order to highlight taxa threatened with extinction, and therefore promote their conservation.

Today, the SSC remains committed to providing the world with the most objective, scientifically-based information on the current status of global biodiversity. IUCN disseminates information on the taxonomy, conservation status and distribution of taxa through the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

The Biodiversity Assessment Initiative was established as a collaborative effort between IUCN/SSC and the Center for Applied Biodiversity Science at Conservation International. It aims to provide an effective method for gathering and disseminating the most accurate scientific data available for biodiversity conservation. The work of the Global Amphibian Assessment (GAA), completed in 2004, serves as an efficient model for biodiversity assessment. This work provides the stage for the next biodiversity assessment, the Global Mammal Assessment (GMA), which, having secured core funding from the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF), is underway.

Other institutions assisting in the GMA are the Zoological Society of London, the University of Rome 'La Sapienza', the Institute of Applied Ecology (Rome), Smithsonian Institution, the University of Virginia, and the Rufford-Maurice Laing Foundation.

Mammals are one of the most important groups of species on earth in terms of evolution, ecology and economic impact. They occupy nearly all of the planet's ecosystems and play critical roles in ecosystem dynamics, including as predators and keystone species. Mammals figure prominently in basic ecological and evolutionary research, and as flagship species they are the centerpieces of significant work in conservation science.

Although a great deal is known about mammalian biology, systematics, distribution patterns and conservation status, this knowledge is neither uniform nor complete. Moreover, of the more than 5,000 mammal species known worldwide, the threat status of more than 2,500 is insufficiently known or inadequately documented. The goal of the Global Mammal Assessment is to consolidate available information on the systematics, distribution, habitat requirements, ecology and life history, and conservation status of mammals. Documentation of each mammal's conservation status is done according to existing IUCN Red List of Threatened Species criteria, including notation of past and existing threats, conservation actions and population trends.

The collected information on mammals will allow conservation scientists to clearly determine interventions to preserve mammalian biodiversity worldwide. For the first time, data will be available to determine the total set of threatened species occurring in a particular region; identify the necessary conservation interventions; and establish a baseline against which the success of conservation actions can be measured and monitored. Lastly, the capacity of the IUCN Species Survival Commission's network of mammal experts will enable the Global Mammal Assessment to be constantly updated. We will have the benefit over the coming years of reliable, up-to-date, species-based information for an important taxon.

The SSC member network includes wildlife researchers and behavioural ecologists, government officials, wildlife veterinarians, zoo employees, marine biologists, and wildlife park managers, and, importantly, also comprises one of the single greatest sources of mammalian systematists. Despite the vast experience and expertise of the IUCN and its SSC network, accomplishing the wide-ranging goals of the GMA will require further collaboration.

The assessment process will comprise two essential components: Specialist Group-based, and workshop-based. The existing SSC mammal Specialist Group structure is remarkably strong for certain groups of mammals (such as Antelope, Canid, Cat, and Lagomorph) and all of these groups have produced at least one IUCN/SSC Action Plan in the last decade. Consequently, species falling within the jurisdiction of these well-supported and well-coordinated groups can be adequately assessed by their members providing that they receive sufficient support.

In contrast, the SSC network is somewhat less developed with regard to small mammals, and it is in this area that there will be the greatest role for workshops. Workshops have proved to be the most important tool for the GAA, providing a platform for discussion, interaction, and group peer-review of species relationships, life-history data and distribution maps. They have proved to be most productive in terms of collating the greatest amount of species-based information within a relatively short time period.

The most anticipated result of the GMA will be a complete reassessment of the threat status of all 5,000 plus mammal species. In 1996, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals estimated that 24% of all mammals were threatened, that is, Critically Endangered, Endangered, or Vulnerable. The GMA will allow comparison with those estimates and the evaluation of changes in the status of mammals. However, the ability to conserve mammals does not hinge only on knowledge of their threat status, but also on fundamental aspects relating to their distribution, population numbers and trends, habitat preferences and ecology. This information, most of it either unpublished or published in grey literature or reports available to a limited number of experts, will become available to a wide audience through the GMA.

The GMA protocol is designed as much to assess what is known about mammals, as it is to capture what is not known about them. At the end of the assessment it is likely that gaps will remain. Just as this work represents the first attempt to globally assess knowledge about mammals, the intention is to identify the remaining target taxa and geographic regions that still warrant additional exploration and attention.

The activities of the GMA will reach out to mammalogists and biologists throughout the world, and help connect experts within their discipline. The GMA gives an opportunity for training, increased knowledge base, and enhanced scientific integration within the world's community of mammalogists. This will result in an improved global capacity to study mammals, improved educational opportunities and training, and better collections management. The capture of mammal data in the Species Information Service (SIS)1 and their continued updating, will provide an ongoing educational legacy at all levels. Additional educational opportunities will be provided by involving in-country students, academic staff, and field- and museum-based personnel in workshops. All activities will help to broaden and strengthen the global network of mammal specialists.

In summary, the GMA is a global initiative that aims to undertake a worldwide assessment of the conservation status of all mammal species. Its main product is biodiversity information, incorporating data on distribution, population numbers and trends, habitat, life history, threats, conservation actions, and conservation status. In conjunction with pre-existing data available for birds, and data that soon will be available for amphibians, conservation priority-setting exercises will have the benefit of a wealth of biodiversity information to guide and steer the decision-making process. Species are the bearers of genetic diversity and the building blocks of ecosystems. Information on their conservation status and distribution provides the foundation for making informed decisions about preserving biodiversity at local to global levels.

1 SIS is SSC's emerging data management initiative that includes discrete modules relating to conservation actions (both those identified and those underway), major threats to species, information on trade (use and exploitation of species), and the IUCN/SSC Red List status of species.