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IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

  • Recently, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has released its latest Red List of Threatened Species.

Key facts:

  • Some 902 species are officially extinct.
  • 30 percent of the species (38,543) that it assessed (138,374) face the threat of extinction.
  • Some 80 species are extinct in the wild, 8,404 are critically endangered, 14,647 are endangered, 15,492 are vulnerable and 8,127 are near threatened.
  • Some 71,148 species are of least concern, while 19,404 are data deficient.

Important Species mentioned in the report:

  • The Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) moved from endangered to least concern while the Southern bluefin tuna (Thunnus maccoyii) moved from critically endangered to endangered.
  • The world’s largest living lizard, the Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis), has been moved from vulnerable to endangered.
  • The species is endemic to Indonesia and occurs only in the World Heritage-listed Komodo National Park and neighbouring Flores.

What is the IUCN red list of threatened species?

  • It is the world’s most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of plant and animal species.

How are species categorised?

  • It uses a set of quantitative criteria to evaluate the extinction risk of thousands of species.

The IUCN Red List Categories:

  • The IUCN Red List Categories define the extinction risk of species assessed. Nine categories extend from NE (Not Evaluated) to EX (Extinct).
  • Critically Endangered (CR), Endangered (EN) and Vulnerable (VU) species are considered to be threatened with extinction.

Utility of the red list:

  • It brings into focus the ongoing decline of Earth’s biodiversity and the influence humans have on life on the planet. It provides a globally accepted standard with which to measure the conservation status of species over time.
  • Scientists can analyze the percentage of species in a given category and how these percentages change over time; they can also analyze the threats and conservation measures that underpin the observed trends.

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