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The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (also known as the "IUCN Red List" and "Red Data List"), created in 1963, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of plant and animal species. It is maintained by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. The IUCN Red List is set upon precise criteria to evaluate the extinction risk of thousands of species and subspecies. These criteria are relevant to all species and all regions of the world. The aim is to convey the urgency of conservation issues to the public and policy makers, as well as help the international community to try to reduce species extinction. Major species assessors include BirdLife International, the World Conservation Monitoring Centre, and many Specialist Groups within the IUCN's Species Survival Commission (SSC). Collectively, assessments by these organizations and groups account for nearly half the species on the Red List. The IUCN Red List is often recognised as the most authoritative guide to the status of biological diversity.
Current release The latest update is the 2006 Red List, released on 4 May, 2006. It evaluates 40,168 species as a whole, plus an additional 2,160 subspecies, varieties, aquatic stocks, and subpopulations. From the species evaluated as a whole, 16,118 are considered threatened. Of these, 7,725 are animals, 8,390 are plants, and three are lichen and mushrooms. This release lists 784 species extinctions recorded since 1500 CE, unchanged from the 2004 release. This is an increase of 18 from the 766 listed as of 2000. Each year a small number of 'extinct' species are either rediscovered, becoming Lazarus species, or are reclassified as 'data deficient'. In 2002, the extinction list dropped to 759 species, but has been rising ever since. Categories Species are classified in nine groups, set through criteria such as rate of decline, population size, area of geographic distribution, and degree of population and distribution fragmentation. The older 1994 criteria had eight categories. The "Lower Risk" category contained three subcategories: Near Threatened, Least Concern, and Conservation Dependent (now merged into Near Threatened). The Wikipedia conservation status categories are loosely based on these. When discussing the IUCN Red List, the official term "threatened" is a grouping of three categories: Critically Endangered, Endangered, and Vulnerable. See also | ||||||||
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