the iucn red list of threatened species: celebrating 50 ... red list_2015.pdf · the iucn red list...

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species:

Celebrating 50 years

Background, lessons learned,

and challenges

David Allen

Regional Biodiversity Assessment Officer,

Global Species Programme, Cambridge


THE ORIGINS OF THE IUCN RED

LIST OF THREATENED SPECIES


Proceedings and papers:

International Technical

Conference on the Protection of

Nature, Lake Success, NY, 22-29

August 1949

• Resolution 15: Called for the

establishment of a “survival

service” (became the Species

Survival Commission)

• Resolution 16: Listed threatened

animals (13 birds and 14

mammals) of international

importance – a “proto-Red List”

Humble Beginnings…


1964: The IUCN Red List is born -

A "Preliminary List of Rare Mammals" and a "List

of Rare Birds" are complied and published

1969

1970s:

thematic &

national lists

1964


2000 2015

www.iucnredlist.org

Renowned but (often) misunderstood

Global “GOLD STANDARD” for

informing conservation action

http://www.iucnredlist.org/

We did a lot!


THE RED LIST TODAY

4

The IUCN Red List• A framework for classifying species according

to extinction risk

• The starting point for conservation action

6

Our Goal

To catalyse action for biodiversity conservation

by providing information and analysis on the world’s

species including threats, population status and trends

© ebatty Flickr


THE IUCN RED LIST

A scientific tool for supporting policy change

and communicating conservation needs and

outcomes


World’s most comprehensive information source for

extinction risk of species

• Not just a list, but a compilation

of conservation information on

species at the global level

• Based on the best scientific

information available

• Widely used to inform and

influence biodiversity

conservation

What is the IUCN Red List?


HOW IS IT COMPILED?

Illustration copyright Bob Diven

Red List Categories & Criteria

Categories

Thresholds

Criteria

Red List assessment process

• Approach differs depending on who is running the assessment

• Data collection

• Expert workshops

• ‘Peer review’ and Red List Authority

• Quality control: Red List Unit, Red List database + website

• Publication on www.iucnredlist.org

http://www.iucnredlist.org/

Who is involved?

• The IUCN Red List is produced by the IUCN Global Species

Programme working in close partnership with the IUCN Species

Survival Commission (SSC), Red List Partners and some Members

• Based on contributions from a global network of nearly 10,000

scientific experts

https://www.yousendit.com/download/M3BrblFEVEhUME1aQ2NUQw

The IUCN Red List partnership

16

Introduction to the IUCN Red List


Regional and National

Red Lists


www.nationalredlist.org

http://www.nationalredlist.org/

21


Applications,

Challenges and

Lessons Learned

Expanding the representation of the Red List

Camera trap in Sumatra: National Geographic

Beyond charismatic megafauna and hand-

picked assessments

• Number of species on the Red List is increasing – but NOT all

threatened

• Increasing taxonomic coverage

• More than 25,000 reassessments in last 4 years

• Increasingly, more complete taxonomic groups are being assessed


Proportion of extant species on the Red List for the comprehensively

assessed groups (left) and the sampled groups (right)

Comprehensive assessments

Spatial data

2010

20062008

2012

Informing species-specific

conservation actions


Action Asia Campaign

• Aims to focus funding on vertebrates identified as threatened

• Joint programme with European Association of Zoos and Aquariums

ALLIANCE FOR THE CONSERVATION OF LARGE ANIMALS IN ASIA


A response to an emergency call from nature

Improve the status of threatened species and

their habitats

Create a global coalition to build the biggest

species conservation fund, supporting on-the-

ground field conservation projects all over the

world.

Drive positive change


Mohamed Bin Zayed Species

Conservation Fund

Important Bird Areas

Important Plant Areas

Alliance for Zero Extinction sites

Freshwater KBAs

Key Biodiversity Areas

Centre for Mediterranean

Cooperation & GSP:

Freshwater KBAs in the

Mediterranean basin (N

Afr & E Med)

Identifying Sites for

Conservation Action

Source: Darwall W., Carrizo, S., Numa, C., Barrios, V., Freyhof, J. and Smith, K.

2014. Freshwater Key Biodiversity Areas in the Mediterranean Basin Hotspot.


Red List data informs

global conventions

Convention on Biological Diversity

2010 Biodiversity Target (adopted 2001):

biodiversity decline should be halted with the aim of

reaching this objective by 2010

CoP 10 (Nagoya, Japan) set the agenda for next ten

years – Global Strategy on Biodiversity with 20 Aichi

Targets. Red List data informs several targets.

Red List data

contributes to

measuring progress

of many Aichi

targets

Red List Index

Shows trends over time in

projected extinction risk of sets

of species

Can be calculated for any set of

species that have been

assessed at least twice

Based on proportion of species

in each RL category and

proportion moving between

categories owing to genuine

status changes

tracks progress towards the 2010 CBD target

used to report against the UN Millennium Development Goal 7:

‘ensure environmental sustainability’.


National RLIs

Gärdenfors (2010), Pihl and Flensted (2011), Lopez (2011), Juslén et al. (2012), Szabo et al. (2012); Rodriguez et al. (in prep).


Safeguard Policies and

Certification Schemes

Performance Standard 6:

Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable

Management of Living Natural Resources


Lessons learnt

The value of the Red List and all its supporting data for guiding

conservation decisions, policy and funding (it is still one of the few

datasets around that can be used for this and for monitoring

outcomes).

Who can use the data and who pays? IUCN Knowledge Products are

“public goods” and as such should be freely available; but this does

not mean that we cannot charge for commercial use of the data -

IUCN Policy on Commercial Use of Data, Red List Terms of Use, and

licensing agreements developed with commercial companies either

directly or through subscriptions to IBAT. So making data available for

commercial use was a huge learning process.

External use of data Re-posting of data on other external sites through

written and time-limited agreements.


Lessons learnt

Fine–tuning the assessment process through workshops has been a

big learning process for us – we have learnt how to run workshops

efficiently and have gained good facilitation skills along the way by

doing workshops. But always the problem of lack of formal training.

Learnt much about handling the media and the use of social media to

promote the Red List and are now exploring other avenues to promote

the Red List and conservation of species through art, etc.

We cannot take the results from one taxonomic group to act as a

surrogate for other groups – the threats, the proportions threatened and

concentrations of where most threatened species are vary enormously

between taxonomic groups.

Training Resources: we cannot go around the world providing Red List

Training courses: a wide network of trainers is needed, plus the online

Training System.


Challenges

Expanding taxonomic coverage and increasing representation within

groups – SRLI, comprehensive assessments

Managing and speeding up assessment and RL publication process

Reassessments – funding, ‘expert fatigue’ and capacity (citizen

science and wiki/e-forum approaches)

Red List languages – planned, but complex! French, Spanish and

Portuguese initially, Chinese, Bahasa Indonesia later.

Take up of data and the need to keep it current – e.g., CBD and the

Aichi Targets, IFC standards

Value of RL of Species in relation to RL of Ecosystems (Habitats)


Red List on-line journal - all assessments downloadable as PDFs with

unique doi numbers. Citable and retrievable.

Moving to continuous updates – rolling publication.

Updating and maintaining infrastructure - SIS and the RL websites

(single platform); increased volume of assessments, improved

functionality, improved download and data access functions.

Integrating the Red List with the other IUCN Knowledge Products

Integrating the Red List with other key external sites (e.g. links to CITES

and CMS databases; better linkage to GBIF, linkage to Species+)

Spatial data and data access

Funding


Communications Challenges

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

1. Most are not threatened

2. Not just species (infra-taxa and regions)

3. Dealing with incomplete coverage

4. Capturing transitory audiences

5. Shifting the focus from the “cute and fluffy”

6. Getting politicians and public fully engaged

7. Making optimal use of social media

8. Making the web site more user-friendly for

non-technical users

Over 70,000

so far

Our target is to make

Stuart et al. 2010. The

barometer of life. Science

328:177–177

Barometer of Life video

IUCN Red List video

http://youtu.be/VukyqMajAOU

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ekjdjjm3qu9dbgm/Final IUCN.mov?dl=0

the iucn red list of threatened species: celebrating 50 ... red list_2015.pdf · the iucn red list...

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