25 International Union for conservation of Nature (IUCN) categories of threatened species

Prof. Daizy Batish

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Learning outcomes

In this module we will learn about International Union for conservation of Nature (IUCN) categories of threatened species.

Introduction

The International Union for conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. It is the leading International environmental organization. Its headquarter is at Gland, Switzerland.

History

The IUCN was founded on 18 October, 1948 at Fontainebleau, France. It is the world’s most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of species. The organization is funded by governments, member organizations bilateral and multilateral agencies, etc. It is the world’s main authority on the conservation status of species. It is headquartered in Gland, Switzerland. India became a state member of IUCN in 1969. The office of IUCN in India is located in New Delhi established in 2007.

Logo of IUCN

IUCN has produced several key international environmental agreements namely:

a)  the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD),

b)  the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES),

c)  the World Heritage Convention, and

d) the Ramsar Convention on wetlands.

 

Functions of IUCN

The organization is best known for compiling and publishing the IUCN Red List of threatened species, which assesses the conservation status of species worldwide. The mission of IUCN is to persuade, promote and help societies to preserve the diversity of nature. Its aim is to protect nature and promotes its sustainable utilization of natural resources. It also integrates matter of poverty alleviation, climate change, and biodiversity and gender equality.

 

Activities of IUCN

IUCN works over a wide range of themes related to conservation, environmental and ecological issues. Some of them are given below Source: IUCN; https://www.iucn.org/theme ):

a)   Business and Biodiversity: aims to transform business values, manages and invests in nature, highlighting the opportunities and benefits of a more sustainable approach.

b)   Climate Change: assessing the risks of climate change; practical nature-based solutions centred on better conservation, management and restoration of natural ecosystems. 

c)  Ecosystem Management: IUCN works to have healthy ecosystems to provide goods (food and water,) and services (climate regulation and protection from natural hazards).

d)   Forest conservation

e)    Protection of Marine and Polar environments

f)  IUCN Global Species Programme is to save species for people and nature.

g)  Water Conservation and Management

h)   Natural World Heritage sites

i)  IUCN Global Protected Areas Programme

In addition to this several other activities are undertaken by IUCN. The details of the latest activities of IUCN can be obtained from its official website.

IUCN has generated several resources. Such as

a)  Conservation Tools

b)  IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

c)  IUCN Red List of Ecosystems

d)  Key Biodiversity Areas

The details of some of them are given below:

Conservation tools

The key objective of IUCN is to share the knowledge. IUCN’s knowledge products consist of conservation databases and tools. The major

The List of Conservation databases developed by IUCN is given below:

  • The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
  • The IUCN Red List of Ecosystems assesses
  • The World Database on Key Biodiversity Areas
  • Protected Planet assesses
  • ECOLEX : a gateway to environmental law

a)  IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

The IUCN Red list of threatened species was created in 1964. This is the world’s most inclusive record of worldwide conservation status of biological species. It is one of the most well-known objective assessment systems for classifying the status of plants, animals, and other organisms threatened with extinction.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) unveiled this assessment system in 1994. It contains explicit criteria and categories to classify the conservation status of individual species on the basis of their probability of extinction. The species are categorized into nine groups by IUCN Red List as shown in the Figure 1.

Logo of IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

 

Criteria for classification

The IUCN system uses a set of five quantitative criteria to assess the threat or extinction risk of a given species. These are the followings:

  1. The rate of population decline of a given species.
  2. The geographic range.
  3. Population size
  4. Species size or its habitat area
  5. Whether these above quantitative properties indicate a high probability of extinction of species in the wild.

Figure 1: Showing IUCN Red list various categories

Table 1 : Representing various categories under Red List

b) IUCN Red List of Ecosystems

The IUCN Red List of Ecosystems is a global standard to access the conservation status of ecosystems. It is applicable at local, national, regional and global levels. It is based on a set of rules, or criteria, for performing evidence-based, scientific assessments of the risk of ecosystem collapse, as measured by reductions in geographical distribution or degradation of the key processes and components of ecosystems.

The IUCN Red List of Ecosystems is working towards five major targets:

  1. Classify and list the world’s ecosystems and document their status.
  2. Focus not only on threatened ecosystems but also on those that are in good condition as a result of active management, and so highlight best practices in ecosystem management.
  3. Establish a “secretariat” to manage the Red List of Ecosystems process in collaboration with the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
  4. Enhance technical and institutional capacity for ecosystem red-listing at national, regional and global levels.
  5. Develop strong linkages between good ecosystem management and sectors which are not necessarily focused on conservation (e.g. national and economic planning, livelihood improvement, and the private sector).

The details regarding development of the Red List of Ecosystems and Risk Assessment Criteria can be obtained from the website of IUCN

IUCN 2017-2020 Programme and future prospects

The IUCN Programmes working for people and nature provides the framework for planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluating the conservation work undertaken by the Commissions and the Secretariat with and on behalf of IUCN Members. At present IUCN programme 2017-2020 was approved by member organizations at IUCN’s World Conservation Congress (Fig. 2). The IUCN programme 2017-2020 has three main priority areas:

a)  Valuing and conserving nature.

b)  Promoting and supporting effective and equitable governance of natural resources.

c)  Deploying nature-based solutions to societal challenges.

The aim of IUCN is that up to 2025, to assess the global conservation status of all of the world’s terrestrial, freshwater, marine and subterranean ecosystems and to create the first IUCN Red List of Ecosystems of the World.

Figure 2: Proposed timeline for development of the IUCN Red list of Ecosystems to achieve global coverage.

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References

  • Red List of threatened species – as an indicator of biodiversity trend http://www.iucnredlist.org/about/overview
  • https://www.britannica.com/topic/IUCN-Red-List-of-Threatened-Species http://byjus.com/free-ias-prep/iucn-red-list-india-2016-upsc-ias-exam
  • http://www.iucnworldconservationcongress.org/.
  • IUCN (2013) IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN Species Survival Commission, Gland, Switzerland (http://www.iucnredlist.org/about/summary-statistics).