IUCN Red List

IUCN - The World Conservation Union, through its Species Survival Commission (SSC) has for more than four decades been assessing the conservation status of species, subspecies, varieties and even selected subpopulations on a global scale in order to highlight taxa threatened with extinction, and therefore promote their conservation. Although today we are operating in a very different political, economic, social and ecological world from that when the first IUCN Red Data Book was produced, the SSC remains firmly committed to providing the world with the most objective, scientifically-based information on the current status of globally threatened biodiversity. The taxa assessed for the IUCN Red List are the bearers of genetic diversity and the building blocks of ecosystems, and information on their conservation status and distribution provides the foundation for making informed decisions about conserving biodiversity from local to global levels. 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. This system is designed to determine the relative risk of extinction, and the main purpose of the IUCN Red List is to catalogue and highlight those taxa that are facing a higher risk of global extinction (i.e. those listed as Critically Endangered, Endangered and Vulnerable). The IUCN Red List also includes information on taxa that are categorized as Extinct or Extinct in the Wild; on taxa that cannot be evaluated because of insufficient information (i.e. are Data Deficient); and on taxa that are either close to meeting the threatened thresholds or that would be threatened were it not for an ongoing taxon-specific conservation programme (i.e. are Near Threatened). Taxa that have been evaluated to have a low risk of extinction are classified as Least Concern. The Least Concern assessments did not appear on IUCN Red Lists produced before 2003 (except for 225 cases in 1996) because the main focus has been on threatened species. However, for the sake of transparency and to place threatened assessments in context, all Least Concern assessments are now included. Unfortunately, there has not been a formal reporting process in place to capture all Least Concern assessments; hence the list provided is incomplete. A process to capture the Least Concern listings has begun (at the species level only), but this is likely to take several years to complete. The list of threatened taxa is maintained in a searchable database by the Red List Unit of the IUCN Species Programme as part of the SSC's Species Information Service (SIS). The records for all taxa listed in the Red List Categories described above are provided here and they can be viewed by using the Search and Expert Search functions on the home page. (Note that the default search parameters are set to look for species only and include Least Concern listings). Taxa not included on the IUCN Red List are those that went extinct before 1500 AD, Least Concern species that have not yet been data based, and species that have not yet been assessed (i.e., they are in the Not Evaluated category). The only taxonomic groups, that have been comprehensively assessed, are the amphibians, birds, mammals, conifers and cycads. The vast majority of plant taxa listed in the 1997 IUCN Red List of Threatened Plants have not yet been evaluated against the revised Red List Criteria and are therefore not included here (see the UNEP-WCMC site for an explanation of the differences). To find out the conservation status of plants, users must search both this database and the UNEP-WCMC Threatened Plants database. In-depth analyses of the data contained in the IUCN Red List are conducted periodically and the results are published once every four years. The results from the analysis of the data contained in the 2004 version of the IUCN Red List are published in the 2004 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. A Global Species Assessment The link above takes one to the Executive Summary from the publication, which includes a link to a downloadable PDF of the full Global Species Assessment (GSA). An HTML version of the publication can be seen at: http://www.iucn.org/bookstore/HTML-books/Red%20List%202004/completed/cover.html. Copies of the Global Species Assessment can also be purchased from the IUCN World Conservation Bookstore. The next major analysis is due to be published in 2008.