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IUCN/SSC Cycad Specialist Group

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IUCN Red List

For the past four decades, the IUCN Species Survival Commission has been assessing the conservation status of taxa - species, subspecies, varieties and even selected subpopulations - on a global scale in an effort to highlight taxa threatened with extinction and to promote their conservation. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species provides taxonomic, conservation status, and distribution information on taxa that have been globally evaluated using the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria (the most recent version is v. 3.1 [2001]).

The Red List Categories and Criteria (in both PDF and web versions) and the Red List Assessment Questionnaire that must be completed for each species to be added to the Red List (in PDF format) are as follows:

• Red List Categories & Criteria v. 3.1 (redlist.org)

• Red List Categories & Criteria v. 3.1

• Red List Assessment Questionnaire

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Here are a couple recent peer-reviewed articles that discuss the value of the IUCN Red List with respect to conservation and its strengths with respect to biodiversity indicators:

• 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 and Evolution 21:71-76.

• Butchart, S.H.M., H.R. Akcakaya, E. Kennedy & C. Hilton-Taylor. 2006. Biodiversity indicators based on trends in conservation status: Strengths of the IUCN Red List Index. Conservation Biology 20:579-581.

The 2006 Red List includes 239 cycad taxa (one more [= Cycas micronesica] than the 2004 Red List). The links below represent the search results from the 2006 Red List online database for all listed cycad taxa (as of 6 May 2006):

• Ceratozamia alvarezii - Cycas javana

• Cycas lindstromii - Dioon caputoi

• Dioon edule - Encephalartos natalensis

• Encephalartos ngoyanus - Zamia hymenophyllidia

• Zamia inermis - Zamia wallisii
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