International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources’ (IUCN) in its latest red list of threatened species (which was published in Tokyo in the first week of December 2017)upgraded the status of the two birds of New Zealand Okarito kiwi and the Northern Brown Kiwi from”endangered” to “vulnerable” because of a steady increase in population.
-Some 91,523 out of nearly 1.9 million described species have been assessed for the Red List, of which 25,821 are threatened, 866 are extinct and 69 extinct in the wild. The IUCN describes 11,783 species as vulnerable, 8,455 as endangered and 5,583 critically endangered.
-snowy owl has been listed as “vulnerable” for the first time, with its population declining at a rate of 30% to 40% in three generations.
-The list also found that on Australia’s Christmas Island, three species of reptiles— the blue-tailed skink, the Christmas Island whiptail skink and the Lister’s gecko — have become extinct after rapid population decline.
-The baiji, a kind of dolphin native to the Yangtze river in China, is thought to be extinct, but some findings have raised hopes it might not be. Experts are now surveying the river in hopes of a sighting.
— Irrawaddy dolphin and finless porpoise that roam coastlines of Southeast Asia are now designated as endangered, imperiled by entanglement in fishing nets and other human activities.
-Apart from animal species, many wild crops, such as wild wheat, rice and yam, face threats from overgrazing, use of herbicides and urbanization. Such wild plants are crucial food sources and also play a critical role in the genetic diversity of domesticated food crops.
About IUCN
-IUCN, created in 1948, is the world’s largest and most diverse environmental network, harnessing the knowledge, resources and reach of more than 1,300 Member organisations and some 10,000 experts. It is a leading provider of conservation data, assessments and analysis. Its broad membership enables IUCN to fill the role of incubator and trusted repository of best practices, tools and international standards.
-It is composed of both government and civil society organisations. It provides public, private and non-governmental organisations with the knowledge and tools that enable human progress, economic development and nature conservation to take place together.
-The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ is widely recognized as the most comprehensive, objective global approach for evaluating the conservation status of plant and animal species. From its small beginning,
-Species assessed as Critically Endangered (CR), Endangered (EN), or Vulnerable (VU) are referred to as “threatened” species.
According to their website,the IUCN Red List Categories are intended to be an easily and widely understood system for classifying species at high risk of global extinction.
The categories are:
EXTINCT: the last individual in the species has died.
EXTINCT IN THE WILD: it now lives only in captivity and not in its natural habitat.
CRITICALLY ENDANGERED: facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild.
ENDANGERED : facing a very high risk of extinction in the wild.
VULNERABLE : facing a high risk of extinction in the wild.
NEAR THREATENED: likely to qualify for a threatened category in the near future.
LEAST CONCERN: it is widespread and abuntant in the wild.
DATA DEFICIENT: inadequate information.
NOT EVALUATED: not yet been evaluated against the criteria.
