The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (2024)

FAQs

What is the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species? ›

The IUCN Red List is a critical indicator of the health of the world's biodiversity. 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.

Endangered (EN), a designation applied to species that possess a very high risk of extinction as a result of rapid population declines of 50 to more than 70 percent over the previous 10 years (or three generations), a current population size of fewer than 250 individuals, or other factors.

Red list comprehends nine clearly defined categories into which every taxon in the world can be classified. Not Evaluated (NE), Data deficient (DO), Least Concern (LC), Near Threatened (NT), Vulnerable (VU), Endangered (EN), Critical Endangered (CR), Extinct in the wild (EW), Extinct (EX).

The IUCN Red List, 2004, documents the extinction of 784 species including 338 vertebrates. 359 invertebrates and 87 plants in the last 500 years. Was this answer helpful?

The main purpose of The IUCN Red List is to provide information to help catalyse and inform conservation action in order to prevent species extinctions, rather than to document extinctions as they happen.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological species.

Species are classified into one of nine Red List Categories: Extinct, Extinct in the Wild, Critically Endangered, Endangered, Vulnerable, Near Threatened, Least Concern, Data Deficient and Not Evaluated. Vulnerable, Endangered and Critically Endangered species are considered to be threatened with extinction.

The Species Threat Abatement and Restoration (STAR) metric also uses data from the IUCN Red List in a way that allows governments, cities, civil society, the finance industry, investors and companies to quantify the potential impact of their actions on reducing species extinction risk.

The main driver of biodiversity loss remains humans' use of land – primarily for food production. Human activity has already altered over 70 per cent of all ice-free land.

What is the IUCN Red List what information from IUCN can be used to inform conservation decisions? ›

The IUCN Red List is more than just a list of species names and Red List Categories. It is a compendium of information detailing the current extinction risk for the animal, fungus and plant species that have been assessed to date.

One criticism of the Endangered Species Act is that it hinders economic activity. For instance, in order to protect the spotted owl, logging in certain areas must be curtailed. This is why many companies lobby against certain provisions of the Endangered Species Act, and some groups want the law completely red.

Madagascar was the country with the most threatened living species in the world, at nearly 3,800 species under threat of extinction as of 2023. Five out of the top 10 countries with the largest number of threatened species were in America, with Ecuador ranking second on the list.

Endangered. It is estimated that there are less than 10,000 and as few as 2,500 red pandas remaining in the wild.

The Guidelines for Using the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria are regularly updated: the current version is version 16 (March 2024). Please check that you have the most recent version before starting to prepare an assessment for publication on The IUCN Red List. This document is available in English.

The red list is a list of species that are considered to be in danger of extinction. The red list now includes more than 28,000 species that are considered as threatened with extinction. red-listed adjective. In the most recent survey, one in five breeds of British bird was red-listed.

The Red List Index (RLI) shows trends in overall extinction risk for species, and is used by governments to track their progress towards targets for reducing biodiversity loss.

Practically this means: Critically Endangered (CR): A species facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild. Endangered (EN): A species considered to be facing a very high risk of extinction in the wild. Vulnerable (VU): A species considered to be facing a high risk of extinction in the wild.