Iucn Red List Of Threatened Species
Established in 1964, the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species has evolved to become the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of animal, fungi and plant species.
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The IUCN Red List is a critical indicator of the health of the world’s biodiversity.
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Far more than a list of species and their status, it is a powerful tool to inform and catalyze action for biodiversity conservation and policy change, critical to protecting the natural resources we need to survive.
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It provides information about range, population size, habitat and ecology, use and/or trade, threats, and conservation actions that will help inform necessary conservation decisions.
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Currently there are more than 105,700 species on The IUCN Red List, with more than 28,000 species threatened with extinction, including 40% of amphibians, 34% of conifers, and 33% of reef building corals, 25% of mammals and 14% of birds.
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In much the same way as a barometer measures atmospheric pressure to help us prepare for adverse weather conditions, The IUCN Red List measures the pressures acting on species, which guides and informs conservation actions to help prevent extinctions. This is why The IUCN Red List is often referred to as a barometer of life.
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IUCN has set a goal to assess 160,000 species by 2020. International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
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The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is a membership Union uniquely composed of both government and civil society organizations.
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Created in 1948, IUCN has evolved into the world’s largest and most diverse environmental network.
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As the first global environmental union, it brought together governments and civil society organizations with a shared goal to protect nature. Its aim was to encourage international cooperation and provide scientific knowledge and tools to guide conservation action.
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IUCN played a fundamental role in the creation of key international conventions, including the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (1971), the World Heritage Convention (1972), the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, (1974) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (1992).
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In 1980, IUCN – in partnership with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) – published the World Conservation Strategy, a groundbreaking document which helped define the concept of ‘sustainable development’ and shaped the global conservation and sustainable development agenda.
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species:
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is one of the most well-known objective assessment systems for classifying the status of plants, animals, and other organisms threatened with extinction. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) unveiled this assessment system in 1994. It contains explicit criteria and categories to classify the conservation status of individual species on the basis of their probability of extinction.EXTINCT (EX): A taxon is Extinct when there is no reasonable doubt that the last individual has died. A taxon is presumed extinct when exhaustive surveys in known and/or expected habitat, at appropriate times (diurnal, seasonal, annual), and throughout its historic range have failed to record an individual. Surveys should be over a time frame appropriate to the taxon’s life cycle and life form.EXTINCT IN THE WILD (EW): A taxon is Extinct in the Wild when it is known only to survive in cultivation, in captivity or as a naturalized population (or populations) well outside the past range. A taxon is presumed Extinct in the wild when exhaustive surveys in known and/or expected habitat, at appropriate times (diurnal, seasonal, annual), and throughout its historic range have failed to record an individual. Surveys should be over a time frame appropriate to the taxon’s life cycle and life form.
CRITICALLY ENDANGERED (CR): A taxon is Critically Endangered when it is considered to be facing an extremely high rate of extinction in the wild and when the best available evidence indicates that it meets any of the following criteria –-
Population size reduction of ≥ 90% over the last 10 years or three generations, whichever is the longer, where the causes of the reduction are clearly reversible, understood and ceased.
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Probability of extinction in wild is at least 50% in 10 years
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Population size is estimated to number fewer than 50 mature individuals.
ENDANGERED (EN): A taxon is Endangered when it is considered to be facing an extremely high rate of extinction in the wild and when the best available evidence indicates that it meets any of the following criteria –-
Population size reduction of ≥ 70% over the last 10 years or three generations, whichever is the longer, where the causes of the reduction are clearly reversible, understood and ceased.
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Probability of extinction in wild is at least 20% in 20 years
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Population size is estimated to number fewer than 250 mature individuals
VULNERABLE (VU): A taxon is Vulnerable when it is considered to be facing a high risk of extinction in the wild and when the best available evidence indicates that it meets any of the following criteria –-
Population size reduction of ≥ 70% over the last 10 years or three generations, whichever is the longer, where the causes of the reduction are clearly reversible, understood and ceased.
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Probability of extinction in wild is at least 20% in 20 years
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Population size is estimated to number fewer than 250 mature individuals
NEAR THREATENED (NT): A taxon is Near Threatened when it has been evaluated against the criteria but does not qualify for Critically Endangered, Endangered or Vulnerable now, but is close to qualifying for or is likely to qualify for a threatened category in the near future.LEAST CONCERN (LC): A taxon is Least Concern when it has been evaluated against the criteria and does not qualify for Critically Endangered, Endangered, Vulnerable or Near Threatened. Widespread and abundant taxa are included in this category.DATA DEFICIENT (DD): A taxon is Data Deficient when there is inadequate information to make a direct, or indirect, assessment of its risk of extinction based on its distribution and/or population status. A taxon in this category may be well studied, and its biology well known, but appropriate data on abundance and/or distribution are lacking. Data Deficient is therefore not a category of threat. Listing of taxa in this category indicates that more information is required and acknowledges the possibility that future research will show that threatened classification is appropriate. It is important to make positive use of whatever data are available. In many cases great care should be exercised in choosing between DD and a threatened status. If the range of a taxon is suspected to be relatively circumscribed, and a considerable period of time has elapsed since the last record of the taxon, threatened status may well be justified.
NOT EVALUATED (NE): A taxon is Not Evaluated when it is has not yet been evaluated against the criteria. -