Latest IUCN Red List Stories
The criteria of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)'s Red List are an essential tool for evaluating the conservation status of species around the planet, and according to these criteria all the species in the Canary Islands are endangered. However, research carried out recently by José Luis MartÃn Esquivel has highlighted some conflicting areas within the scientific protocol designed to identify threatened plants and animals.José Luis MartÃn Esquivel, a...
The International Union for Conservation of Nature reported on Thursday that pledges to roll back the threat to biodiversity by 2010 are beginning to seem out of reach, AFP reported.Jean-Christophe Vie of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) told AFP the goal set by UN parties under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to reduce biodiversity loss by 2010 would clearly not be met.The Swiss-based IUCN issued a report on Thursday saying Earth was hurtling towards a...
International targets set for reducing biodiversity loss may still be achieved with the help of a new online conservation tool.The new initiative led by the Zoological Society of London brings together information on the world's threatened species and demonstrates that we know the least about the status of animals and plants in areas where diversity is greatest. This means that in parts of the world where conservation planning may be most critical, we lack information to effectively...
The International Union for Conservation of Nature, based in Switzerland, said Thursday 12 percent of the world's bird species face extinction. The conservation group said in a news release 1,227 species were tabbed as globally threatened with extinction in recent research conducted by BirdLife International. Among them were 192 species that were deemed critically endangered. It is extremely worrying that the number of critically endangered birds on the IUCN red List continues to increase,...
The United Nations said recently that man-made threats such as rising populations, felling of forests, hunting, pollution and climate change are all contributing to the world's worst spate of extinctions since the dinosaurs vanished 65 million years ago.Yet scientists must undergo endless searching to prove that any individual species has gone the way of the dodo."If there's one thing in my career I'd like to be proved wrong about, it's the baiji," said Sam Turvey of the Zoological...
the endangered animals Among the mammals particularly in danger are primates, used for bush meat in parts of Africa and facing major loss of habitat in Southeast Asia. The report also notes unusually high threats to tapirs, hippos, bears, pigs and hogs, while among the less threatened are moles, opossums and free-tailed bats. the causes In general, larger mammals were found to be more threatened than smaller ones. Larger species tend to have lower population densities, grow more slowly,...
By Jenny Haworth Environment Correspondent FROM the enormous African elephant to the tiny elephant-shrew, thousands of animals face extinction unless urgent action is taken, according to the biggest survey ever carried out into the world's mammals. At least one in four species could disappear forever, in an "extinction crisis". A five-year study by more than 1,000 scientists has shown that half of all mammal species are in decline because of habitat loss and hunting, with 1,141 out of...
By James Kanter An "extinction crisis" is under way with one in four mammals in danger of disappearing forever because of habitat loss, hunting and climate change, a leading global conservation body warned Monday. "Within our lifetime hundreds of species could be lost as a result of our own actions," said Julia Marton-Lefevre, director general of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, an international network of campaign groups, governments, scientists and other experts. She...
One in four of the world's mammals are at risk of extinction, conservationists meeting in Spain direly warned Monday. The International Union for Conservation of Nature said a study suggests at least 1,141 of the planet's 5,487 mammals are known to be threatened with being wiped off the face of the Earth. "Within our lifetime hundreds of species could be lost as a result of our own actions, a frightening sign of what is happening to the ecosystems where they live," the organization's...
World Wildlife Fund said today that governments must double their efforts to save endangered species, as the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Red List revealed that one in four of the world's 5,487 known mammal species was at risk of extinction. Species such as tree kangaroos, narwhals and Irrawaddy dolphins are now closer to extinction, say WWF scientists who helped compile the list and work around the world to save endangered species and habitats. The IUCN Red...
