The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

Transcription

1 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 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

2 THE ORIGINS OF THE IUCN RED LIST OF THREATENED SPECIES The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

3 Humble Beginnings Proceedings and papers: International Technical Conference on the Protection of Nature, Lake Success, NY, 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 The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

4 1964: The IUCN Red List is born - A "Preliminary List of Rare Mammals" and a "List of Rare Birds" are complied and published s: thematic & national lists The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

5 Global GOLD STANDARD for informing conservation action Renowned but (often) misunderstood The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

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7 We did a lot!

8 THE RED LIST TODAY The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

9 4 The IUCN Red List A framework for classifying species according to extinction risk The starting point for conservation action

10 Our Goal To catalyse action for biodiversity conservation by providing information and analysis on the world s species including threats, population status and trends 6 ebatty Flickr

11 THE IUCN RED LIST A scientific tool for supporting policy change and communicating conservation needs and outcomes The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

12 What is the IUCN Red List? 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 The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

13 Illustration copyright Bob Diven HOW IS IT COMPILED? The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

14 Red List Categories & Criteria Criteria Categories Thresholds

15 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

16 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

17 16 The IUCN Red List partnership

18 Introduction to the IUCN Red List

19 The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species Regional and National Red Lists

20 The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

21 Applications, Challenges and Lessons Learned The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 21

22 Expanding the representation of the Red List Beyond charismatic megafauna and handpicked assessments Camera trap in Sumatra: National Geographic

23 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

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25 Comprehensive assessments Proportion of extant species on the Red List for the comprehensively assessed groups (left) and the sampled groups (right) The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

26 Spatial data

27 Informing species-specific conservation actions

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29 Action Asia Campaign ALLIANCE FOR THE CONSERVATION OF LARGE ANIMALS IN ASIA Aims to focus funding on vertebrates identified as threatened Joint programme with European Association of Zoos and Aquariums The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

30 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-theground field conservation projects all over the world. Drive positive change The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

31 The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species Mohamed Bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund

32 Key Biodiversity Areas Important Bird Areas Important Plant Areas Alliance for Zero Extinction sites Freshwater KBAs

33 Identifying Sites for Conservation Action Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation & GSP: Freshwater KBAs in the Mediterranean basin (N Afr & E Med) Source: Darwall W., Carrizo, S., Numa, C., Barrios, V., Freyhof, J. and Smith, K Freshwater Key Biodiversity Areas in the Mediterranean Basin Hotspot.

34 Red List data informs global conventions The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

35 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.

36 Red List data contributes to measuring progress of many Aichi targets

37 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.

38 National RLIs Gärdenfors (2010), Pihl and Flensted (2011), Lopez (2011), Juslén et al. (2012), Szabo et al. (2012); Rodriguez et al. (in prep). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

39 Safeguard Policies and Certification Schemes Performance Standard 6: Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Management of Living Natural Resources The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

40 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. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

41 The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 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.

42 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) The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

43 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 The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

44 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 The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

45 Our target is to make Over 70,000 so far Stuart et al The barometer of life. Science 328:

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47 Barometer of Life video IUCN Red List video