IUCN Red List
2017–2020 Report

ENDANGERED
EN

Image credits: Rodrigues Fruit Bat (Pteropus rodricensis) © Jacques de SpevilleContents

00 Introduction
01 Executive summary
02 Status and Trends in Global Biodiversity
03 The Extinction Risk of Species
04 Conserving species using the IUCN Red List
05 Global Species Monitoring
06 Influencing Global Ambition for Species Conservation
09 Examples of recovery and avoided extinction
13 Guiding Decision-making to Conserve Species
16 Catalysing Conservation Action
18 Science-based Species Conservation
20 An updated and improved IUCN Red List
22 New Entries on the IUCN Red List
24 Species that are recovering
25 Species that are declining
26 IUCN Red List at Regional and National Levels
30 New IUCN Red List website
32 Scientifically strong IUCN Red List
34 An updated and improved IUCN Red List
35 Online Red List Training
36 Red List Training Workshops
38 The IUCN Red List partnership
39 The IUCN Red List: Oversight and financing
40 Acknowledgments

Executive Summary

Explainer
IUCN

GSP

A membership Union founded in 1948, uniquely
composed of both government and civil society
organizations. It provides public, private and nongovernmental organizations with the knowledge
and tools that enable human progress, economic
development and nature conservation to take place
together.

The Global Species Programme (GSP) is part of the
IUCN Secretariat and works closely with the SSC at
the forefront of the global fight to save species fromextinction. Comprising teams in Belgrade, Brussels,
Cambridge, Cameroon, Gland and Washington D.C,
the GSP main functions are to generate, curate anddisseminate The IUCN Red List of Threatened SpeciesTM
and to advance conservation action and policy.

This report captures the highlights of the conservation
impact of the The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
2017–2020. It represents the collective efforts of the IUCNRed List Partnership and reports against the ten target
Results of the IUCN Red List Strategic Plan (2017-2030).

SSC
The Species Survival Commission (SSC) is the largest of
the six expert commissions of IUCN and enables IUCN
to influence, encourage and assist societies to conserve
biodiversity by building knowledge on the status andthreats to species, providing advice, developing policies
and guidelines, facilitating conservation planning,and catalysing conservation action. Members of SSC
belong to one or more of the 140 Specialist Groups,
Red List Authorities and Task Forces, each focusing
on a taxonomic group (animals, fungi and plants),
or a disciplinary issue, such as sustainable use andlivelihoods, translocation of species, wildlife health,climate change and conservation planning.

Five Key Messages

Red List Partnership
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is madepossible through the active participation of the Red List
Partners and their respective networks. As a result,the IUCN Red List represents an enormous investmentof time, expertise and financial resources by a large
number of individuals and organizations. IUCN gratefully
acknowledges the contributions, dedication andcommitment from its Partners and the extensive networkof people who make the production of The IUCNRed List possible. The IUCN Red List of Threatened
Species is produced by the Red List Partnership,currently: ABQ BioPark, Arizona State University,
BirdLife International, Botanic Gardens Conservation
International, Conservation International, International
Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Missouri
Botanical Gardens, NatureServe, Re:Wild, Royal Botanic
Gardens Kew, Sapienza University of Rome, IUCN
Species Survival Commission, Texas A & M University
and Zoological Society of London.

1.

A global standard. The IUCN Red List is the acknowledged
authority on species extinction risk and an authoritativecompendium of information on the global conservation
status of species. Use of the IUCN Red List and Red List
Index increased, with the Sustainable Development Goals,
the private sector, multilateral environmental agreements,
global media outlets, digital platforms, and donors all relying
on its content to either make decisions or communicate
about the biodiversity crisis.

2.

A Barometer of Life. The IUCN Red List tracks andmeasures the status and trends in wild species acrossthe globe. Assessments of all major species groups suchas plants, fungi, invertebrates, reptiles, and fish, continue
to expand in number and scope. The IUCN Red List of
Threatened Species expanded its coverage of the world’s
biodiversity by 51% between 2017 and 2020.

3. A global measure of success. The IUCN Red List data
provided evidence of improvements in species’ status due
to conservation action, demonstrating that ‘conservation
works’. We need to scale up these efforts to address thebiodiversity crisis.

4. A global partnership. The IUCN Red List Partnershipprovides the long-term commitment and collaborationneeded to deliver the complexity and scale of the IUCNRed List.

5. A global public good. With the growing understanding thata healthy and functioning natural world delivers countless
benefits, the Red List provides a potential benefit to all
people in all countries.

1

Status and Trends in Global Biodiversity

The Extinction Risk of Species

The world aspires to stabilise the decline inbiodiversity and put nature on the path torecovery by 2030. The IUCN Red List gives
a window into the state of nature and a wayof tracking biodiversity recovery, or decline,
over time. Without the IUCN Red List, work
to stop the decline in biodiversity would be
little more than guesswork.

assessed in each category for the more comprehensively assessed (i.e., at least 80%of the species in the group has been assessed) groups containing ≥150 species

The IUCN Red List includes 128,918 speciesof which 35,765 (28%) are threatenedwith extinction. Certain groups are known
to be considerably threatened, such asamphibians (41%), sharks (31%) and corals(33%) with increased extinction risks
observed since 1990.

The Red List Index
Corals0.9

Mamals0.8

Amphibians

EN

VU

DD

NT

LC

Total Extant
Species assesssed(i.e., excluding EX)

Cephalopods

750

Selected Bony Fishes

4,712

Selected Gastropods

633

Birds

10,999Mammals

5,847

Selected Crustaceans

2,879

Reef-forming Corals

845

Conifers

610

Selected Reptiles

342

Sharks, Rays & Chimaeras

1,200

Selected Eudicots

4,317

Amphibians

7,177

Cyads

307

Proportion of extant species

0.7

0.6
Cycads

0.5
1980

1985

1990

1995

2000

2005

2010

2015

Year

Key:

Extremes

2020

Proportion of species threatened with extinction in different taxonomic groups that arecomprehensively assessed for the IUCN Red List. Species are grouped into classes (withthe exception of reef-forming corals, which includes species from classes Hydrozoa andAnthozoa), and are ordered according to the vertical dark red lines, which indicate the best
estimate for the proportion of extant species considered threatened, assuming that Data
Deficient species are equally as threatened as non-Data Deficient species. The numbers
to the right of each bar represent the total number of extant species assessed for eachgroup. Taxonomic subsets included in the groups labelled ‘selected’ are detailed athttps://www.iucnredlist.org/resources/summary-statistics

Most likely value

The Red List Index (RLI) of species survival for taxonomic groups that have beenassessed for the IUCN Red List at least twice.The blue line indicates the overall RLI for
all the taxa combined. A value of 1 is equivalent to all species being categorised as
Least Concern; a value of zero is equivalent to all species being classified as Extinct.
2

CR

Birds

extinction risk

IUCN Red List index of species survival

1.0

EW

The IUCN Red List tells us which species are the most likely to go extinct, wherethese species occur, the threats causing the extinction pressure and the conservation
actions needed.
3

Conserving species using the IUCN Red List
The IUCN Red List was used in many different
ways to drive, monitor and communicate about
conservation.
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ is the most comprehensive compendiumof information on the global conservation status of animal, plant and fungi species.
Systematically collated, the IUCN Red List showcases the changing state of life on earth
and the risk of extinction over time for major groups of species. This knowledge alsoenables us to forecast changes in rates of biodiversity loss, map the way forward forbiodiversity conservation, and track conservation success. Far more than a list, The IUCNRed List is a vital indicator of the health of biodiversity, at national, regional, and global
levels; it is widely used for societal decision making, helping donors decide how to allocate
their funds and the private sector minimise their footprint. It also informs conservation
planning, telling us which species need to be conserved, at which sites, and what actions
are needed for their recovery.

Global Species Monitoring
Statistics from The IUCN Red List and the Red List Index were used as indicators of
biodiversity for global agreements and reports mandated by the United Nations. Examples of
the IUCN Red List and the Red List Index as the primary source of information on the global
status of species in UN-mandated assessments are shown below

GlobalBiodiversity
Outlook 5

2020: Global
Biodiversity
Outlook 5

2020

2018

2018

THE STATE OF

THE WORLD’SFORESTSFORESTS, BIODIVERSITY
AND PEOPLE

2019: IPBES Global
Assessment Reporton Biodiversity
and Ecosystem
Services

2018: UNEP and
RAMSAR’s Global
Wetland Outlook:
State of the World’s
Wetlands

GLOBALWETLAND
cover
to show
OUTLOOK
naturalpic
wetlandwithhumanflourishing

The global
assessment report on

BIODIVERSITY
AND ECOSYSTEMSERVICES“The IUCN Red List is the gold standard globally inconservation data. It helps set priorities way beyond
what IUCN itself does. From the outset it has helped
set priorities for the Global Environment Facility, as
well as influencing priorities regionally and nationally.
It is the Rosetta Stone for conservation.”

2020: UNEP and
FAO report on2018 of the
The State
World’s Forests

State of the world’s
wetlands and theirservices to people 2018

SUMMARY FOR POLICYMAKERS

Convention
on Wetlands

Thomas E. Lovejoy
University Professor In Environmental Science and Policy, George Mason University; Senior Advisor to the Chair,
Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel, Global Environment Facility. Blue Planet Prize Laureate 2012

45

Sustainable Development Goals and other global agreements
The Red List Index shows trends in overall
extinction risk for species, and is usedby governments and others to track theirprogress towards targets for reducing
biodiversity loss. This is only made possible
by regular updates of species assessmentson the IUCN Red List and data and graphs
on different Red List Indices are available on
the IUCN Red List website.
The Red List Index serves as the single
indicator adopted by the UN Member States,
supported by the UN Statistical Division, fortracking progress towards delivery of SDG
15.5. For more, see the SDG annual reportand platform.
The United Nations Convention to Combat
Desertification uses the IUCN Red List and

Red List Index as an indicator for Strategic
Objective 4.
Two of the UN’s species-focussed global
agreements, on migratory species andinternationally traded species, used the
IUCN Red List as a basis for guiding
decision making. The IUCN Red List wasused to guide decisions under CITES related
to (i) the inclusion of new species in theConvention - more here, (ii) assessmentsof the risk posed by international trade to
species that can be legally traded and (iii)assessing the conservation status of species
for which commercial trade is prohibited.
It is also used in the Living Planet seriesof reports

Influencing Global Ambition for Species Conservation
Analyses of the IUCN Red List delivered compelling high-level messages topolicy-makers and the global media through:The convening power of IUCNThe IUCN Red List helped shape the 2019
Abu Dhabi Call for Species Conservation
Action that encourages governments anddonor institutions to allocate substantial
additional resources for conservation of
species and their habitats to halt the decline
in biodiversity.
This led to the Global Species Action
Plan which addresses the deteriorationof our life support system through theessential but often neglected lens ofspecies conservation.

6

It calls for collaborative efforts by thebiodiversity-related conventions, by State andnon-State actors, and society as a whole toact now to ensure we pass on a rich natural
heritage to future generations.
The IUCN Red List is also the foundation
on which ‘Reverse the Red’ was conceived.
Reverse the Red aims to ignite optimism
and collaborative action to guarantee thesurvival of all species we share this planet
with, and the ecosystems they live in. It aims
to empower communities around the world toreverse the declining trajectory of biodiversity.

VULNERABLE
VU

Image credits: Chinese Water Dragon (Physignathus cocincinus) © Michael Cota

7

Examples of recovery and avoided extinction

Messages from Scientists to
Policy Makers
These clear and compelling messages were made possible through analysesof the IUCN Red List data.

Pervasive human-driven decline of life on
Earth points to the need for profound change

RES EARCH

REVIEW SUMMARY◥GLOBAL CONSERVATION

Pervasive human-driven decline of life on Earthpoints to the need for transformative change
Sandra Díaz*, Josef Settele, Eduardo S. Brondízio, Hien T. Ngo, John Agard, Almut Arneth,
Patricia Balvanera, Kate A. Brauman, Stuart H. M. Butchart, Kai M. A. Chan, Lucas A. Garibaldi,
Kazuhito Ichii, Jianguo Liu, Suneetha M. Subramanian, Guy F. Midgley, Patricia Miloslavich,
Zsolt Molnár, David Obura, Alexander Pfaff, Stephen Polasky, Andy Purvis, Jona Razzaque,Belinda Reyers, Rinku Roy Chowdhury, Yunne-Jai Shin, Ingrid Visseren-Hamakers,
Katherine J. Willis, Cynthia N. Zayas

BACKGROUND: Human actions have long been

ADVANCES: Human impacts on life on EarthPHOTO CREDIT WWW.ESTEBANTAPELLA.COM

have increased sharply since the 1970s. The
world is increasingly managed to maximize
the flow of material contributions from nature to keep up with rising demands for food,◥OUTLOOK: Our comprehensive assessment of

status, trends, and possible futures for natureand people suggests that action at the levelof direct drivers of nature decline, althoughnecessary, is not sufficient to prevent further
deterioration of the fabric of life on Earth.
Reversal of recent declines—and a sustainableglobal future—are only possible with urgent
transformative change that tackles the root
causes: the interconnected economic, sociocultural, demographic, political, institutional,
and technological indirect drivers behind the
direct drivers. As well as a pan-sectoral approach to conserving and restoring the naturethat underpins many goals, this transformation will need innovative governance approaches
that are adaptive; inclusive; informed by existing and new evidence; and integrative acrosssystems, jurisdictions, and tools. Although thechallenge is formidable, every delay will makethe task even harder. Crucially, our analysis
pinpoints five priority interventions (“levers”)
and eight leverage points for intervention in
the indirect drivers of global social and economic systems where they can make the biggest
difference.

▪

Downloaded from http://science.sciencemag.org/ on July 21, 2021

known to drive declines in nature, and there is
growing awareness of how globalization meansthat these drivers increasingly act at a distance(telecoupling). However, evidence from different disciplines has largely accumulated in parallel, and the global effects of telecouplings havenever been addressed comprehensively. Now, thefirst integrated global-scale intergovernmental
assessment of the status, trends, and future of
the links between people and nature provides
an unprecedented picture of the extent of ourmutual dependence, the breadth and depth ofthe ongoing and impending crisis, and the interconnectedness among sectors and regions.

energy, timber, and more, with global trade
increasing the geographic separation between
supply and demand. This unparalleled appropriation of nature is causing the fabric of lifeon which humanity depends to fray and unravel: Most indicators of the state of nature,whether monitored by natural and social
scientists or by Indigenous Peoples and local
communities, are declining. These include thenumber and population size of wild species,
the number of local varieties of domesticatedspecies, the distinctness of ecological communities, and the extent and integrity ofmany terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. As
a consequence, nature’s capacity to provide
crucial benefits has also declined, including
environmental processes underpinning human health and nonmaterial contributions
to human quality of life. The costs are distributed unequally, as are the benefits of an
expanding global economy.

These trends in nature and its contributions to people are projected to worsen in the
coming decades—unevenly so among different regions—unless rapid and integrated action
is taken to reduce the direct drivers responsible
for most change over the past 50 years: landand sea use change, direct harvesting of many
plants and animals, climate change (whose impacts are set to accelerate), pollution, and the
spread of invasive alien species. Exploratory
scenarios suggest that a
ON OUR WEBSITE
world with increased regional barriers—resonatRead the full article
ing with recent geopoliticalat http://dx.doi.
org/10.1126/
trends—will yield morescience.aax3100
negative global trends in..................................................
nature, as well as the greatest
disparity in trends across regions, greaterthan a world with liberal financial markets, andmuch greater than one that prioritizes and integrates actions toward sustainable development. Evidence from target-seeking scenariosand pathways indicates that a world that
achieves many of the global biodiversity targets and sustainability goals related to food,energy, climate, and water is not—yet—beyond
reach, but that no single action can get us there.

Diaz et al. 2019 showed that “the fabric of life on
which we all depend-nature and its contributions topeople-is unravelling rapidly. Despite the severity ofthe threats and lack of enough progress in tacklingthem to date, opportunities exist to change future
trajectories through transformative action. Such action
must begin immediately, however, and address theroot economic, social, and technological causes ofnature's deterioration.”

The list of author affiliations is available in the full article online.
*Corresponding author. Email: sandra.diaz@unc.edu.ar
Cite this article as S. Díaz et al., Science 366, eaax3100(2019). DOI: 10.1126/science.aaw3100

Traditional diversity-rich human landscapes, and the livelihoods and identities that depend on them,
face global threats. Mosaics of crops, forest, and pasture have been maintained for millennia around theworld. Now, they are under increasing threat from climate change and large-scale land use change toaccommodate global demands for commodities. So are the livelihoods and cultural identity of the peoples thatlive in them, such as this woman collecting fodder for her flock in the Checacupe district, Perú.
Díaz et al., Science 366, 1327 (2019)

Received: 12 February 2020

TOMORROW’S EARTH
Read more articles online
at scim.ag/TomorrowsEarth
1 of 113 December 2019

Revised: 10 August 2020

Accepted: 23 August 2020

DOI: 10.1111/conl.12762

LETTER

How many bird and mammal extinctions has recent
conservation action prevented?
Friederike C. Bolam1
Mark Burgman6

Louise Mair1
Claudia Hermes7

Philip J.K. McGowan1
James R.S. Westrip10

Marco Angelico2

Thomas M. Brooks3,4,5

Michael Hoffmann8

Rob W. Martin7

Ana S.L. Rodrigues9
Hannah Wheatley7

Javier Calzada12
Matthew F. Child13,14
Christopher R. Dickman16,17
Birgit Fessl18
Stephen T. Garnett20,17
Rosalind J. Kennerley23

Carlo Rondinini2
Yuliana Bedolla-Guzmán11Peter A. Cranswick15
Diana O. Fisher19

Jim J. Groombridge21
Christopher N. Johnson22
Sarah R.B. King24
John F. Lamoreux25

Alexander C. Lees26,27
Luc Lens28
Simon P. Mahood29,20
David P. Mallon26,30
Erik Meijaard31,21
Federico Méndez-Sánchez11,32
Alexandre Reis Percequillo33
Tracey J. Regan34,35
Luis Miguel Renjifo36
Nicolette S. Roach38,39
Lizanne Roxburgh40
Tom Squires26
Ella Vázquez-Domínguez42
John C.Z. Woinarski20,17
Richard P. Young23

Malin C. Rivers37
Roger J. Safford7

Paul Salaman41

Piero Visconti43,44
Stuart H.M. Butchart7,45

1 School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
2 Global Mammal Assessment Program, Department of Biology and Biotechnologies, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
3 IUCN, Gland, Switzerland
4 World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF), University of The Philippines Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines
5 Institute for Marine & Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
6 Imperial College London, London, UK
7 BirdLife International, Cambridge, UK
8 Zoological Society of London, London, UK
9 CEFE, Univ. Montpellier, CNRS, EPHE, IRD, Univ. Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, Montpellier, France
10 Global Species Programme, IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), Cambridge, UK
11 Grupo de Ecología y Conservación de Islas, A.C., Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico
12 Department of Integrated Sciences, University of Huelva, Huelva, Spain
13 South African National Biodiversity Institute, Pretoria, South Africa
14 Mammal Research Institute, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
15 The Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust, UK
16 School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
17 Threatened Species Recovery Hub, National Environmental Science Program, Brisbane, Australia

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided theoriginal work is properly cited.
© 2020 The Authors. Conservation Letters published by Wiley Periodicals LLC
Conservation Letters. 2021;14:e12762.
https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12762

wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/conl

1 of 11

How many bird and mammal extinctions
have been prevented through recent
conservation action?
Bolam et al. 2020 showed that even though 10 bird andfive mammal species have become extinct since 1993,
extinction rates would have been 2.9–4.2 times greater
without conservation action. While policy commitments
have fostered significant conservation achievements,
future biodiversity action needs to be scaled up to avert
additional extinctions.

Guam Rail
Hypotaenidia owstoni
second bird in history to recover after being
declared Extinct in the Wild, after the California
Condor (Gymnogyps californianus). Thanks
to a 35-year captive breeding programme,
the Guam Rail is now established on theneighbouring Cocos Island. However, the bird
is still classified as Critically Endangered – onestep away from extinction.

Echo Parakeet
Alexandrinus equescontinues its recovery thanks to conservation
efforts, including a highly successful captive
breeding programme. There are now more than
750 Echo Parakeets in the wild, and in the 2019
Red List update the species was reclassified
as Vulnerable, following its improvement from
Critically Endangered to Endangered in 2007.

Two freshwater fish species – theAustralian Trout Cod (Maccullochellamacquariensis) and Pedder Galaxias(Galaxias pedderensis)
have likewise improved, from Endangered
to Vulnerable and Critically Endangered
to Endangered respectively. Decadesof conservation action have focused on
establishing additional subpopulations throughreintroductions and wild-to-wild translocations.

Image credits: Guam Rail (Hypotaenidia owstoni) ©del Hoyo et al
Echo Parakeet (Alexandrinus eques) ©DurrellTrust
Australian Trout Cod (Maccullochella macquariensis) ©Gunther Schmida
Pedder Galaxias (Galaxias pedderensis) © Rudie H. Kuiter / Aquatic Photographics

89

Conservation efforts
bring cautious hope
for African rhinos

Global messaging using
the IUCN Red List
IUCN Red List media releases generated
global interest in the featured species,
while underlining that, in the face of thebiodiversity crisis, conservation efforts areworking and require more support. Mostof IUCN’s top releases since 2016,
measured by quality and quantity of
media coverage, have announced IUCNRed List updates. These have received
coverage across dozens of countries
around the world, in influential media suchas the New York Times, BBC, Le Monde,
El País and The Nikkei, and in major news
agencies worldwide.

The IUCN Red List is also the mostpopular IUCN product in media queries,
with significant demand for the kind ofdata and news it provides. This strong
media presence makes the IUCN Red List
central to shaping IUCN’s external image
and positioning.

Click here
IUCN Red List media release, 2020

Species recoveries
bring hope amidst thebiodiversity crisis
Click here
IUCN Red List media release, 2019

European bisonrecovering, 31 species
declared Extinct

Australia’s reptiles
threatened by invasive
species, climate change

Click here

Click here

IUCN Red List media release, 2020

IUCN Red List media release, 2018

Almost a third of lemurs
and North Atlantic
Right Whale now
Critically Endangered

Unsustainable fishingand hunting forbushmeat driving iconic
species to extinction

Click here

Click here

IUCN Red List media release, 2020

IUCN Red List media release, 2019

Image credits: European Bison (Galaxias pedderensis) ©Rafal Kowalczyk
Ring-tailed Lemur (Lemur catta) ©Zwennie CC BY-SA 2.0

Image credits: South-Western Black Rhino (Diceros bicornis occidentalis) ©Dave Hamman
Rainbow Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus deglupta) ©Thomas Caldwell
Water monitor (Varanus salvator) ©Stewart MacDonald
Sclater's guenon (Cercopithecus sclateri) ©Lynne R. Baker

10

11

Through these media releases, IUCN is able to generate global interest in highly threatened
species that would otherwise remain largely unknown, as well as mainstream issues ofcritical importance such as climate change and unsustainable exploitation of nature.

Examples:Guiding Decision-making to Conserve Species
The IUCN Red List is used to power different
digital platforms that influence and guidedecision-making across sectors.
The IUCN Red List is used by businesses
throughout the process of planningand implementing projects, in order tounderstand and manage potential impacts
on biodiversity. It informs screening andimpact avoidance, baseline survey design,
impact assessment and mitigation,
biodiversity action plan development, andoffset design and implementation.

Lord of the Rings toad

World’s most expensive fungus

The Amazing Species campaign featured
species of interest and raised the profile
of biodiversity conservation and the IUCNRed List. https://www.IUCNredlist.org/
resources/gridPhoto © Fernando Trujillo

Amazing Species: Tucuxi
The Tucuxi (Sotalia fluviatilis) is a freshwater dolphin species that lives in the Amazon
River system in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.
Geographical range

These small grey dolphins are usually found in small groups of up to around 6 individuals.
They live in the main channels of large and medium sized rivers, but tend to avoid areasof fast-moving water, as well as flooded forests. Tucuxis prey on a variety of fish species.
The number of Tucuxis is declining, with threats including death caused by fishing gear andhabitat degradation due to dams and pollution. Eliminating the use of gillnets – curtains offishing net that hang in the water – and reducing the number of dams in Tucuxi habitat are

The IUCN Red List of
Threatened Species™
is made possible through the
Red List Partnership with thesupport of the IUCN-Toyota
Red List Partnership.
Amazing Species
is sponsored bypriorities to enable the population to recover.
This species is included in international legislation such as the Convention on Migratory
Species (CMS). There are also conservation action plans underway for the species at bothnational and continent-wide levels.
iucnredlist.org | 2021

12

The Integrated Biodiversity Assessment Tool(IBAT) is a web-based map and reporting
tool that provides fast, easy and integrated
access to The IUCN Red List of Threatened
Species, World Database on Protected Area
and the World Database of Key Biodiversity
Areas. It provides access to the mostauthoritative global biodiversity datasets,
and is used by the private sector for earlystage, high-level risk screening.
IBAT is used by some of the largest, mostrecognised companies in the world – 29 of
IBAT’s subscribers are considered “largecap” companies, with a market capitalizationof over US$10 billion each. IBAT also
plays a crucial role in the financial sector,
helping organisations to screen potential
investments for biodiversity risks.

A third of the income generated forinvestment into the three under-lying
datasets supports activities that maintainthe IUCN Red List.

Examples:•International Olympic Committee:
The IOC uses IBAT as a key tool during
the initial dialogue with cities interested
in hosting the Olympic Games.

•

International Finance Corporation:
The International Finance Corporation(IFC), a member of the World Bank
Group, uses IBAT to screen forbiodiversity risks and critical habitat
values in project locations globally as
part of its environmental due diligence.

Data and metrics derived from the IUCN Red
List were used by a number of the globally
recognised online platforms to support
decision making by governments, civilsociety and the private sector. Red List data
are downloaded, or accessed directly, fromthe IUCN Red List website in accordancewith the Terms of Use.
Global Forest Watch’s map layer‘Global Biodiversity Significance’
UN Biodiversity LabsNaturemaps
Global Biodiversity Information Facility

IBAT is currently used by 11 Public
Development Banks, who together financeover US$330 billion annually of direct
investments across the globe. IBAT currently
has 99 commercial users that access thedata, tools and reports through subscription
or pay-as-you-go services.
13

Usage of the IUCN Red List website remains very high with users responding wellto the new version launched in 2019 and the many improvements in functionality.

38,822 assessment
data downloads(average 9,700 per year)

81.5 million page views(average 20 million per year)

The IUCN Red List has
users in every single
country of the world

16.2 million unique visitors(average 4 million per year)

28 million website
sessions(average 7 million per year)

14

189,458 individual
spatial data downloads

190 million species maps
downloaded(average 47,364 per year)(average 47.6 million per year)

15Catalysing Conservation Action
IUCN follows an Assess-Plan-Act approach that uses the IUCN Red List as the basis for
guiding and conducting conservation actions.

Direct conservation action is catalysedby the IUCN Red List through:•

Addition of a species to the IUCN Red
List in a highly threatened category•

A species moving from a lower to higher
extinction risk on the IUCN Red List•

A status review, or conservation plan,of the species using the IUCN Red
List highlights the actions needed topromote recovery•

Environmental safeguarding measures
can be triggered by the presence of
threatened species

The IUCN Red List catalyses conservation. Species extinction would have been greater
without conservation action and many species have undergone dramatic recoveries due tosustained interventions over time. Successful conservation action and policies need to bescaled-up and expanded to halt the decline of biodiversity and to put nature on the path torecovery by 2030

IUCN’s Lemur SOS is a good example ofAssess-Plan-Act:In July 2012, the Lemur Red-listing andConservation Planning Workshop took
place in Madagascar. Twenty-eight priority
sites were chosen based on the numberof Critically Endangered and Endangered
species present, overall species richness, andwhether they included species found only ina single location. This led to the IUCN Save
Our Species Lemurs initiative — a six-year
programme to provide grants to civil society
organisations in Madagascar to support theconservation of lemurs. Through this initiative,
and thanks to the generous donation of a
Geneva-based private foundation, IUCN Save
Our Species has channelled close to 6 million

CHF to on-the-ground lemur conservation
projects throughout Madagascar. Over thecourse of three calls for proposals, IUCN
Save Our Species has been able to provide
52 grants to civil society organisationsin Madagascar. These are providing
conservation benefits to 50 lemur species
and subspecies (from a total of 113 currently
described taxa) and their habitats, as well as
the people who depend on them. As such,
the SOS Lemurs initiative is making directcontributions to the implementation of 18
site-based action plans included in the Lemur
Conservation Strategy 2013–2016.

Scaly-footed snail and deep sea biodiversity
A scientific contribution to the journal Nature
highlighted that ‘Red Listing can protect
deep-sea biodiversity’. The Scaly-foot Snail(Chrysomallon squamiferum) was the first
species endemic to deep-sea hydrothermal
vents on the IUCN Red List of Threatened
Species and the first animal to be listed as
Endangered due to deep-sea mining. This
species is only known from three locations

on deep-ocean ridges in the Indian Ocean,
between 2,400 to 2,800 metres below sea
level occupying an area of less than 0.02 km2.
The listing of deep-sea species represents
a first step towards a global assessment forthese habitats, and towards ensuring thatdeep-sea species have a seat at the table indiscussions about managing the ocean floor.
Amazing Species.

A New Protected Area Planned for Beetles
CRITICALLYENDANGEREDCR

All 12 assessed species of Ironclad Beetles( Tarphius spp.) are considered threatened withextinction. These beetles rely on decomposing
wood, mosses and fern cover for survival, but
the Kahili Ginger (Hedychium gardnerianum), a
plant introduced from the Himalayas, is slowly
replacing native plant species.

The Terceira Island Ironclad Beetle ( Tarphiusrelictus) has been particularly affected by thischange and is now limited to a range of lessthan one hectare. The recent establishment ofa protected area by the Azorean Government,
based on the draft assessment of the Ironclad
Beetle, provides some hope for the future ofthis species.

Image credits: Madame Berthe's Mouse Lemur (Microcebus berthae) © Russell A. Mittermeier

16

17

Science-based Species
Conservation

IUCN Green Status of Species
A global standard for measuring species recovery andassessing conservation impact
Prepared by the IUCN SSC Species Conservation Success Task Force

New metrics using the IUCN Red List weredeveloped and launched to drive species
recovery efforts and assist all stakeholders
in conservation to make science-based
contributions to the next inter-governmental
global biodiversity agreement:
IUCN developed a new metric using the
IUCN Red List called the ‘STAR - Species
Threat Abatement and Restoration’.

This documents the contribution of specificconservation and restoration actions in
specific places by businesses, governments,
civil society, and other actors towards global
goals for halting extinctions. As such STAR
helps identify actions that have the potential
to bring benefits for threatened species, andit supports the establishment of sciencebased targets for species biodiversity.
More information.

Version 2.0

INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE

Click here

The Green Status of Species was approved
by IUCN Council in 2020 as a newcomponent of the Red List of Threatened
Species. Green Status assessments are
the world’s first standardized method
for assessing species’ progress toward
recovery. It recognises that although
preventing extinction is the first criticalstep toward successful conservation, it is
not the end goal. Rather, the true mark ofsuccess would be to recover species to thepoint where they can fulfil their ecological
functions throughout their range - resulting
in species that are not just surviving, but
thriving. More information.

Influencing Resource
Allocation
Betts et al. (2019) identified 41 speciesfocused funding bodies and found that 66%
requested that applicants state the IUCNRed List status of the focal species (66%).
Some examples of these are shown below:

18•

The Rufford Foundation provided
conservation and research grants for
species listed as threatened on the
IUCN Red List•

Mohammed Bin Zahed Species
Conservation Fund generally gives
priority to projects on species facinga high threat of extinction, with anemphasis on Critically Endangered
and Endangered species.

•

IUCN’s Save Our Species funded
projects that focussed on CriticallyEndangered, Endangered or Vulnerable
Species•

The Franklinia Foundation supported insitu conservation projects for trees thatare globally threatened on the IUCNRed List

The Global Environment Facility’s System
for Transparent Allocation of Resources(STAR) used a metric derived from the
IUCN Red List as part of the formula todetermine the amount of GEF resourcesthat a given country can access in a
replenishment period.

19

150000

Reportingperiod120000

90000

60000

30000

20

20

19

18

20

20

17

20

16

15

20

14

20

13

20

12

20

20

11

20

Unprecedented progress on fungi

10

20

•

09

20

Major progress to completing the global
re-assessments of amphibians, birds
and mammals.

08

•

07

20

20

Major progress towards completing firstever global assessments of reptiles,
freshwater fish, dragonflies and trees.

06

20

•

05

20

15,760 species were re-assessed tocheck for changes in extinction risk

04

•

03

20

20

A further 43,662 species were added to
the IUCN Red List during 2017–2020

02

20

•

01

20

The IUCN Red List was expanded and updated.
Previously under-represented groups were added forthe first time and re-assessments of species alreadyon the IUCN Red List were completed to monitor forchange to extinction risk.

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species expanded its coverage of the world’s
biodiversity by 51% between 2017 and 2020

Total species assessed

An updated and improved IUCN Red List
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species expanded
its coverage of the world’s biodiversity by 51%
between 2017 and 2020.

Year

Expanding the IUCN Red List

Species Reassessed

Species Added

20%
10%

375
19020
9157

2940

30%

0
i

ts

ng

an

Fu

Pl

ts

r te

er

es

th

es

re
-T

at

s

er

es

ns

-O

s

al

br

ile

m

ia

re
-T

es

th

at

-O

ns

s

br

s

ia

al

ib

an

ve

Pl

sh

pt

am

s

ph

rd

Re

M

Bi

Am

i

ts

ng

an

Fu

Pl

ts

ile

m

ib

r te

an

ve

Pl

sh

In

Fi

pt

am

s

ph

rd

Re

M

Bi

5677

1

0

50%
40%

5357

1640

668

10%

1186

842

20%

2876

2046

3542

30%

2939

50%
40%

70%
60%

390

60%

80%

46

70%

700

80%

90%

In

Percentage increase in each species group

90%

Am

20

Number of species assessed
100%

Fi

Percentage increase in each species group

Number of species assessed
100%

21

New Entries on the IUCN Red List
Fan Mussel
Pinna nobilis

Giant Pseudoscorpion
Garypus titaniusThis marine mollusc has entered the Red
List as Critically Endangered. A newly
discovered pathogen, (Haplosporidium
pinnae), is causing dramatic declines in the
population throughout the Mediterranean
Sea where it is endemic. Causing the deathsof 80 to 100% of affected Fan Mussels, thisamounts to a mass mortality event.

The world’s largest pseudoscorpion
has entered the Red List as CriticallyEndangered. Reaching 1.5cm, this giant
mini-beast related to scorpions lives on
a 5-hectare islet off the UK Overseas
Territory of Ascension Island. The Giant
Pseudoscorpion is under threat due toinvasive predatory invertebrates, suchas the American Cockroach (Periplaneta
americana). Control and management ofthese invasive predators is the key to its
long-term survival.

Barbie Pagoda
Podoserpula mirandaThis rare and unusual New Caledonia
fungus entered the Red List as CriticallyEndangered. Clearance of its forest
habitat and habitat degradation caused byintroduced pigs, feral cattle and horses are
its main threats.

Kalimantan Mango
Mangifera casturi
Four wild mangos were listed as
Endangered, and the Kalimantan mango(Mangifera casturi) was listed as Extinct in
the Wild. These species are relatives of thecommon mango (Mangifera indica) andare threatened by habitat loss. Native toSouth Asia, mangoes are now cultivatedin many tropical and subtropical countries
and they are one of the most commercially
important fruits in these regions.

Eucalyptus trees
All known eucalypt species worldwide havebeen assessed, revealing that almost 25%
are threatened with extinction.

Image credits: Fan Mussel (Pinna nobilis) ©Diego Kersting
Barbie Pagoda (Podoserpula miranda) ©Christian Laudereau
Eucalyptus tree (Eucalyptus globulus) ©Ethel Aardvark

22

Image credits: Giant Pseudoscorpion (Garypus titanius) ©Nicola Webber
Kalimantan Mango (Mangifera casturi) ©TopTropicals

23

Species that are recovering

Species that are declining
Kinabalu Slender Litter Frog
Leptobrachella arayai

Madagascar's lemurs
with 103 of the 107 surviving species
threatened with extinction, mainly due todeforestation and hunting in Madagascar

This amphibian moved from Vulnerable to
Least Concern in 2018. It is known from
Kinabalu National Park and Crocker Range
National Park (Trus Madi) in Malaysia. In
2004, the major threat to this species was
rapid logging of sub-montane forests fortimber. However, industrial logging activities
at Trus Madi have nearly ceased and are notoccurring at elevations where this species
occurs. Both of the national parks are well
protected and well-managed, and Trus Madi
is a High Conservation Value Forest.

Okarito Kiwi
Apteryx rowi

The Irrawaddy Dolphin
Orcaella brevirostrisand Narrow-ridged Finless Porpoise
Neophocaena asiaeorientalis

Intensive predator control on small New
Zealand islands led to the re-categorisationof the Okarito Kiwi (Apteryx rowi) and theNorthern Brown Kiwi (Apteryx mantelli) from
Endangered to Vulnerable. Both speciesof Kiwi have been facing threats including
habitat loss and predation by introduced
mammals, such as stoats and feral cats.
Government and community conservation
efforts have focused on predator control,
and removing and incubating eggs forrelease into the wild.

Image credits: Kinabalu Slender Litter Frog (Leptobrachella arayai) ©Andreas & Christel Nöllert, Jena
Okarito Kiwi (Apteryx rowi) ©Grant Maslowski

24

have both declined, moving from theVulnerable to the Endangered category.
Numbers more than halved over the past 60
years for the Irrawaddy Dolphin, and over the
past 45 years for the Finless Porpoise.

Image credits: Golden Bamboo Lemur (Hapalemur aureus) ©Nick Garbutt
The Irrawaddy Dolphin (Orcaella brevirostris) ©Isabel Beasley25

IUCN Red List at Regional and National Levels

IUCN Red List assessments atnational and regional levels can beprovided in two ways:•

Application of the IUCN Red List
Categories and Criteria for global
assessments summarised at thenational or regional level•

Application of the IUCN Red List
Categories and Criteria at thenational or regional levels

Regional IUCN Red List Assessments

A miniature worldin decline

European Red List of Mosses,
Liverworts and Hornworts
Nick Hodgetts, Marta Cálix, Eve Englefield, Nicholas Fettes, Mariana García Criado, Lea Patin, Ana Nieto, Ariel Bergamini, Irene
Bisang, Elvira Baisheva, Patrizia Campisi, Annalena Cogoni, Tomas Hallingbäck, Nadya Konstantinova, Neil Lockhart, Marko
Sabovljevic, Norbert Schnyder, Christian Schröck, Cecilia Sérgio, Manuela Sim Sim, Jan Vrba, Catarina C. Ferreira, Olga Afonina,
Tom Blockeel, Hans Blom, Steffen Caspari, Rosalina Gabriel, César Garcia, Ricardo Garilleti, Juana González Mancebo, Irina
Goldberg, Lars Hedenäs, David Holyoak, Vincent Hugonnot, Sanna Huttunen, Mikhail Ignatov, Elena Ignatova, Marta Infante, Riikka
Juutinen, Thomas Kiebacher, Heribert Köckinger, Jan Kučera, Niklas Lönnell, Michael Lüth, Anabela Martins, Oleg Maslovsky,
Beáta Papp, Ron Porley, Gordon Rothero, Lars Söderström, Sorin Ştefǎnuţ, Kimmo Syrjänen, Alain Untereiner, Jiri Váňa Ɨ, Alain
Vanderpoorten, Kai Vellak, Michele Aleffi, Jeff Bates, Neil Bell, Monserrat Brugués, Nils Cronberg, Jo Denyer, Jeff Duckett, H.J.
During, Johannes Enroth, Vladimir Fedosov, Kjell-Ivar Flatberg, Anna Ganeva, Piotr Gorski, Urban Gunnarsson, Kristian Hassel,
Helena Hespanhol, Mark Hill, Rory Hodd, Kristofer Hylander, Nele Ingerpuu, Sanna Laaka-Lindberg, Francisco Lara, Vicente
Mazimpaka, Anna Mežaka, Frank Müller, Jose David Orgaz, Jairo Patiño, Sharon Pilkington, Felisa Puche, Rosa M. Ros, Fred
Rumsey, J.G. Segarra-Moragues, Ana Seneca, Adam Stebel, Risto Virtanen, Henrik Weibull, Jo Wilbraham and Jan Żarnowiec

European Red Listof Trees
Malin Rivers, Emily Beech, Ioannis Bazos, Faruk Bogunić, Antoni Buira, Danka Caković, André Carapeto,
Angelino Carta, Bruno Cornier, Giuseppe Fenu, Francisco Fernandes, Pere Fraga i Arguimbau, Pablo
Garcia-Murillo, Martin Lepší, Vlado Matevski, Félix Medina, Miguel Menezes de Sequeira, Norbert Meyer,
Vlastimil Mikoláš, Chiara Montagnani, Tiago Monteiro-Henriques, José Naranjo-Suárez, Simone Orsenigo,
Antoaneta Petrova, Alfredo Reyes-Betancort, Tim Rich, Per Harald Salvesen, Isabel Santana-López,Stephan Scholz, Alexander Sennikov, Lulëzim Shuka, Luís Filipe Silva, Philip Thomas, Angelo Troia,
José Luis Villar, and David Allen

26

A miniature world in
decline : European
Red List of mosses,
liverworts andhornworts (2019). Thispublication is a summaryof the conservation statusof the European species
of mosses, liverworts andhornworts, collectively
known as bryophytes.
European Red Listof trees (2019) thispublication summarises
results for all Europe’s
native species of tree (454
species), of which 265
species (over 58%) areendemic to continental
Europe, with 56% (252species) endemic to the
28 EU Member States.

European Red List of
terrestrial molluscs:
snails, slugs, and semislugs (2019). Overall,
21.8% and 22.5% of the2,469 native species ofterrestrial mollusc are
considered threatened

EUROPEAN RED LIST OFTERRESTRIAL MOLLUSCS:SNAILS, SLUGS, AND SEMI-SLUGSEuropean Red List of
Lycopods and Ferns
Mariana García Criado, Henry Väre, Ana Nieto, Rui Bento Elias, Robert Dyer, Yury Ivanenko,
Daniella Ivanova, Richard Lansdown, José Antonio Molina, Germinal Rouhan, Fred Rumsey,
Angelo Troia, Jan Vrba and Maarten J. M. Christenhusz

THE CONSERVATION STATUS OF MARINE
BIODIVERSITY OF THE WESTERN INDIAN
OCEAN
R. Bullock, G. Ralph, E. Stump, F. Al Abdali, J. Al Asfoor, B. Al Buwaiqi, A. Al Kindi, A. Ambuali,
T. Birge, P. Borsa, F. Di Dario, B. Everett, S. Fennessy, C. Fonseca, C. Gorman, A. Govender,
H. Ho, W. Holleman, N. Jiddawi, M. Khan, H. Larson, C. Linardich, P. Matiku, K. Matsuura,
C. Maunde, H. Motomura, T. Munroe, R. Nair, C. Obota, B. Polidoro, B. Russell, S. Shaheen,
Y. Sithole, W. Smith-Vaniz, F. Uiblein, S. Weerts, A. Williams, S. Yahya, K. Carpenter

European Red Listof lycopods andferns (2017). With 194
species assessed, thisassessment highlightsthat 19.9% of lycopod
and fern species are
threatened with extinctionin Europe.

The conservation statusof marine biodiversityof the Western Indian
Ocean (2021).

WESTERN
INDIAN OCEAN

EuropEan rEd List of
saproxyLic BEEtLEs

European Red Listof saproxylic beetles(2018). Saproxylic beetles
are insects that dependon dead and decaying
wood for at least part oftheir lifecycle, and play
important ecological roles
in European habitats.

The IUCN Red List of Threatened SpeciesTM - Regional Assessment27

Regional IUCN Red List Assessments

SUMMARY FOR POLICYMAKERS

IUCN
Rue Mauverney 28
CH-1196 Gland
Switzerland
Tel: + 41 22 999 0000
Fax: + 41 22 999 0015
www.iucn.org/redlist
www.iucnredlist.org

CONSERVATION PRIORITIES FORFRESHWATER BIODIVERSITY IN THE
LAKE MALAWI/NYASA/NIASSA
CATCHMENT
Edited by Catherine A. Sayer, Amy F. Palmer-Newton and William R.T. Darwall

LAKE MALAWI/NYASA/NIASSA
CATCHMENTThe global
assessment report on

BIODIVERSITY
AND ECOSYSTEMSERVICESFRESHWATER BIODIVERSITY IN THE LAKE MALAWI/NYASA/NIASSA CATCHMENT

The status anddistribution of
freshwater biodiversity
in Madagascar and theIndian Ocean islands
hotspot (2018)

Conservation priorities
for freshwater
biodiversity in the Lake
Malawi/Nyasa/Niassa
catchment (2019)

The IUCN Red List of Threatened SpeciesTM
Sources: Esri, HERE, Garmin, Intermap, increment P Corp., GEBCO, USGS, FAO, NPS, NRCAN,
GeoBase, IGN, Kadaster NL, Ordnance Survey, Esri Japan, METI, Esri China (Hong Kong), (c)OpenStreetMap contributors, and the GIS User Community

Government of Malawi

The status anddistribution of
freshwater fishes
in Mexico (2020)

The status and distribution of
freshwater fishes in Mexico
Edited by Timothy Lyons, Laura Máiz-Tomé, Marcelo Tognelli, Adam Daniels,
Clayton Meredith, Robert Bullock and Ian Harrison
IUCN Freshwater Biodiversity Unit, Global Species Programme and the ABQ BioPark

MEXICO

Edited by Laura Máiz-Tomé, Catherine Sayer and William Darwall
IUCN Freshwater Biodiversity Unit, Global Species Programme

MadagasCaraNd the INdIaN
OCeaN IslaNds

the statUs aNd dIstrIBUtION OF Freshwater BIOdIversIty IN MadagasCar aNd the INdIaN OCeaN IslaNds hOtspOt

the statUs aNd dIstrIBUtION OF
Freshwater BIOdIversIty IN MadagasCaraNd the INdIaN OCeaN IslaNds hOtspOt

Freshwater biodiversity
in the Lake Victoria
Basin : guidance for
species conservation,site protection,
climate resilience andsustainable livelihoods(2018)

Mexico baselayer

IUCN Report
the IUCN red list of threatened speciestM

The IUCN Red List of Threatened SpeciesTM

Use of the IUCN Red List at the national and regional level was further enhanced
during 2017–2020 by the inclusion of new functionality on the IUCN Red List website toaccommodate other languages (French, Spanish and Japanese) and a translation facility(Google Translate).
The IUCN Red List website, from 2020, provides Red List Index graphs and data for 253
individual countries and 31 regions or subnational divisions.

LEAST
CONCERN
LC

28

Image credits: White-barred Boxfish (Anoplocapros lenticularis) © CaitlinChilds

29New IUCN Red List website

The IUCN Red List website is a digital platform of critical importance for species
conservation. It is linked to the IUCN Species Information Service database (SIS) whichholds all of the IUCN Red List data and information. A new IUCN Red List was launched in
November 2018 which featured a number of new tools and functions. Major improvements
to SIS were also completed during 2017–2020.

Key features of the IUCN Red
List website and SIS which weredelivered, or significantly improved,
during the reporting period:•

Completely new website with
updated guidelines and statistics•

Fully updated Resources andPublications section•

Improved data download section,
including multiple download types
as well as options for accessing >110,000 species range maps for noncommercial use•

Pages available in Spanish, French
and Japanese, as well as embedded
translate function for species
assessment pages•

The data can be filtered in numerous
ways, and results presented interactively
in a clean and fast manner for the user.

•

Advanced search through user selectedfilters and map with results displayed as
Graphs or List or Grid•

Interactive automated statistics tables
available for decision-makers, whichlinks to download options.

•Improved Application Programming
Interface (API): software intermediarythat allows external users to directly
access the IUCN Red List•

Red List Index graphs and data forcountries, Sustainable Development
Goals, and thematic groups of species(e.g. freshwater, migratory•

SIS Connect: a mechanism thatenables the submission of multiple
species assessments from external
data systems•

SIS: new Red List index module forcollecting and storing such information

https://www.IUCNredlist.org/resources/
sis-updates
30

31

Scientifically strong IUCN Red List
Scientific studies by Red List Partners and otherscientists were used to strengthen the methods
that underpin the IUCN Red List. These scientificadvances are essential to securing the trusted
reputation of the Red List as well as for developing
new and improved methods. Four examples ofthe 21 peer-reviewed publications on Red List
methodology are shown here:

Biodiversity Data Journal 8: e47018
doi: 10.3897/BDJ.8.e47018

Software Description

Rapid Least Concern: towards automating Red List
assessments
Steven Bachman‡, Barnaby Eliot Walker‡, Sara Barrios‡, Alison Copeland§, Justin Moat‡‡ Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, London, United Kingdom§ Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Government of Bermuda, Hamilton, Bermuda

Corresponding author: Steven Bachman (s.bachman@kew.org)
Academic editor: Pedro Cardoso
Received: 02 Oct 2019 | Accepted: 18 Nov 2019 | Published: 23 Jan 2020
Citation: Bachman S, Walker BE, Barrios S, Copeland A, Moat J (2020) Rapid Least Concern: towards
automating Red List assessments. Biodiversity Data Journal 8: e47018. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.8.e47018

Abstract
Background
The IUCN Red List of Threatened SpeciesTM (hereafter the Red List) is an important global
resource for conservation that supports conservation planning, safeguarding critical habitatand monitoring biodiversity change (Rodrigues et al. 2006). However, a major shortcomingof the Red List is that most of the world's described species have not yet been assessedand published on the Red List (Bachman et al. 2019Eisenhauer et al. 2019). Conservation
efforts can be better supported if the Red List is expanded to achieve greater coverage ofmega-diverse groups of organisms such as plants, fungi and invertebrates. There is,therefore, an urgent need to speed up the Red List assessment and documentation
workflow.

Bird et al.
(2020) Generation
lengths of theworld’s birds andtheir implications
for extinction risk.
Conserv. Biol.
doi.org/10.1111/
cobi.13486

Brooks et al.
(2019) Measuring
Area of Habitat(AOH) and its utility
for the IUCN Red
List. Trends Ecol.
Evol. 34: 977-986

Akcakaya et al.
(2017) Inferring
extinctions III:A cost-benefit
framework forlisting extinct
species. BiologicalConservation.
214: 336-342

One reason for this lack of species coverage is that a manual and relatively timeconsuming procedure is usually employed to assess and document species. A recent
update of Red List documentation standards (IUCN 2013) reduced the data requirementsfor publishing non-threatened or 'Least Concern' species on the Red List. The majority of
the required fields for Least Concern plant species can be found in existing open-accessdata sources or can be easily calculated. There is an opportunity to consolidate these data
and analyses into a simple application to fast-track the publication of Least Concern© Bachman S et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CCBY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source arecredited.

Trends in Ecology & Evolution

OpinionMeasuring Terrestrial Area of Habitat (AOH) and
Its Utility for the IUCN Red List
Thomas M. Brooks,1,2,3,* Stuart L. Pimm,4 H. Resit Akçakaya,5 Graeme M. Buchanan,6 Stuart H.M. Butchart,7,8
Wendy Foden,9,10,11 Craig Hilton-Taylor,12 Michael Hoffmann,13 Clinton N. Jenkins,14 Lucas Joppa,15Binbin V. Li,4,16 Vivek Menon,17 Natalia Ocampo-Peñuela,18 and Carlo Rondinini19
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species includes
assessment of extinction risk for 98 512 species, plus documentation of their range, habitat,
elevation, and other factors. These range, habitat and elevation data can be matched with terrestrial land cover and elevation datasets to map the species’ area of habitat (AOH; also known asextent of suitable habitat; ESH). This differs from the two spatial metrics used for assessing extinction risk in the IUCN Red List criteria: extent of occurrence (EOO) and area of occupancy (AOO).
AOH can guide conservation, for example, through targeting areas for field surveys, assessing
proportions of species’ habitat within protected areas, and monitoring habitat loss and fragmentation. We recommend that IUCN Red List assessments document AOH wherever practical.

Rigour and Dynamism in the IUCN Red List
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species [1] aspires to assess the extinction risk of the world’s species, and to serve as a ‘barometer of life’ of the state of nature [2]. Of the approximately 2 million
named species [3], the IUCN Red List has assessed 98 512 species (having increased from fewer
than 20 000 in 2002i). The process of assessment classifies species in different categories of extinction
risk. It does so through an open, rigorously defined process [4] that is objective and transparent. Petitioners can challenge decisions made by Red List Authorities. An important use of the IUCN Red Listis the assessment of changes in species extinction risk to monitor changes in the status of individual
species, classes and other groups of species, and species-level biodiversity overall [5,6]. These are
essential, for example, in reporting on the Aichi Targets [7] and Sustainable Development Goals[8], as well as progress in conserving species [9].
The need for rigour and consensus in assessing extinction risk can potentially bring the process into
conflict with those who seek to harness rapidly expanding geographic databases and remote sensing
technologies to assess species’ status [10–12]. Numerous publications have illustrated how increasingly sophisticated and high-resolution regional and global remote sensing and spatial datasets ormodels can inform the existing Red List criteria [13,14]. The many-fold growth in the availability ofthese data over the last decade, coupled with increasing computing power to process them, has allowed the development of methods for estimation of the Area of Habitat (AOH, see Glossary andSupplemental Information) remaining for terrestrial species. It is therefore timely to review,
standardise, and stabilise how AOH is measured, how it relates to the Red List criteria, and sourcesof error in its derivation. Specifically, we show here that AOH is equivalent to neither extent of occurrence (EOO) nor to area of occupancy (AOO). Rather, the area of the minimum convex polygon
around a species’ AOH can be used to estimate the upper bound of EOO. Moreover, if a species’
AOH is measured at (or scaled to) a 2 3 2 km reference scale it can be used to estimate the upperbound of AOO. We conclude by highlighting the relevance of measurement of terrestrial species’area of habitat in guiding conservation, for example through targeting areas for field surveys, assessing proportions of species’ habitat within protected areas, monitoring habitat loss and fragmentation, and increasing consistency between Red List assessments.

Assessment of Extinction Risk, and Its Relationship to AOHFive different criteria are used to assess a species’ extinction risk [15]. In practice, for many terrestrial
species [16], the key criterion (the B criterion) is the size of its geographical distribution plus evidence

Highlights
The IUCN Red List of Threatened
Species assesses the extinction riskof nearly 100 000 species, including
documentation of a range map,
habitat, and elevation data for eachspecies.
Numerous recent studies havematched these habitat and elevation data with remotely sensed land
cover and elevation datasets to
map AOH (also known as extent ofsuitable habitat) within the range ofeach species.
AOH differs from the two spatial
metrics used in the IUCN Red List
criteria for extinction risk assessment: EOO (minimum convex
polygon around all present native
occurrences of a species); and AOO(area actually occupied by aspecies).
AOH can be of value in locatingtarget areas for species-specificfield surveys, assessing the proportion of a species’ habitat withinprotected areas, and monitoring
habitat loss and fragmentation.

1IUCN, 28 rue Mauverney, CH-1196,
Gland, Switzerland
2World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF),
University of the Philippines Los Baños,
Laguna, 4031, Philippines
3Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies,
University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS 7001,
Australia
4Nicholas School of the Environment,
Duke University, Box 90328, Durham, NC
27708, USA
5Department of Ecology and Evolution,
Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY
11794, USA
6RSPB Centre for Conservation Science,
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds,
Edinburgh EH12 9DH, UK

Trends in Ecology & Evolution, November 2019, Vol. 34, No. 11 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2019.06.009ª 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

32

Bachman et al.
(2020). Rapid least
concern: Towards
automating red
list assessments.
Biodiversity Data
Journal, 8(1),

977

33

An updated and improved IUCN Red List
IUCN strives to provide top-quality training, guidanceand support to the network of global, regional andnational Red List experts.

Online Red List Training
IUCN provides free, self-paced training
through the online IUCN Red List course(www.conservationtraining.org), delivering
Red List knowledge and skills
to current and future generations of Red
List experts. In 2020, the online course was
rewritten and updated to improve content
and performance, including the additionof a new Mapping Standards module.

Number of people successfully completingcourse modules and final exam (2017–2020):•

Global Red List course: 1,464

Online IUCN Red List exam passes
500
450
400

•
•

Regional & national Red List course:
1,323

300

Final exam passes: 1,102 (average 23
per month)

200

350

250

150
100
50
0
2017

Red List Trainers
To accommodate the global demand for
Red List training, IUCN developed a Red List
Trainer course. Between 2017 and 2020, five
Red List Trainer courses were held resulting
in 42 newly certified trainers entering the
IUCN Red List Trainer network.

2018

2019

2020

Certified Red List Trainers (2020)
IUCN Global Species
Programme

6

IUCN Regional &Country offices

15
27

IUCN SSC members

10
<1
29

Red List Partners
IUCN SSC - Zoo &Aquaria Partners
Other

34

35

Red List Training
Workshops
The network of certified IUCN Red List
Trainers works hard to provide Red List
training wherever this is needed. Training
workshops give participants direct access to
Red List experts who can answer theirquestions and help them develop the skills
to produce high-quality Red List
assessments.
Wherever possible, training workshops areheld in-person. In 2020, IUCN modified the
Red List Training Workshop curriculum toallow Red List Trainers to facilitate training
workshops online.

Throughout 2017–2020, 48 certified Red List
Trainers provided 120 training workshops
and events (98 in-person, 22 online):•

46 full Red List Training workshops (3-4days).

•

35 short Red List Training workshops(1-2 days).

•

39 Red List sessions (<1 day events
attached to other meetings andworkshops).

•

Over 2,700 people from 61 countries
participated.

LEAST
CONCERN
LC

36

Image credits: Sydney Red Gum (Angophora costata) © Mayu Kataoka

37

The IUCN Red List partnership
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is madepossible through the active participation of the Red
List Partners and their respective networks. As aresult, the IUCN Red List represents an enormous
investment of time, expertise and financial resources
by a large number of individuals and organizations.
The Red List Partnership also serves as animportant means for the partners to coordinate
activities related to biodiversity assessment andanalysis, and to share information, expertiseand insights in ways that enable the partners toachieve their own strategic goals for science-based
biodiversity conservation.

38

During the period 2017–2020 IUCN
welcomed three new institutions to the
IUCN Red List partnership:

The IUCN Red List:
Oversight and financing•

Re:wild•

Missouri Botanical Garden•

ABQ Biopark

IUCN is the custodian of the The IUCN Red
List of Threatened Species and convenes
the Red List Partnership to advance thedevelopment, maintenance, promotion anduse of the IUCN Red List. The partnershipis convened by the Director General of
IUCN and the Chair of the IUCN SSC andoversight is provided through the IUCN Red
List Committee which has representationfrom all partners.

Each of the 13 Red List Partners committed
significant institutional resources toimplementing the IUCN Red List StrategicPlan, totalling $13.8 million. The major
progress reported above in terms of
expanding and updating the IUCN Red
List, as well as the examples of impact,
could not have been achieved without thiscollaborative, committed effort by IUCN the
Red List Partners.
Red List Partners contributed mainly toassessing and reassessing species on the
IUCN Red List. Important contributions by
the partnership were also made to maintainthe scientific credibility of the IUCN Red
List, with 99 peer-reviewed publications
published 2017–2020.

24

guiding policy and action

22

highlighting extinction crisis

19

improving methods

30

advancing knowledge of species

4

other

The IUCN Red List is funded by institutional
resources from each of the IUCN Red List
Partners. Strategic targets are agreed by
the partnership and are integrated into
IUCN’s higher level objectives (e.g. IUCN
Programme 2017–2020) and the partners’
own institutional plans. All partners raise
funds to support the delivery of their
institutional commitments to the IUCNRed List. In 2017–2020 a joint fundraising
approach was piloted. IUCN receives anannual contribution ($80–175k) from thelicensed use of Red data for commercial
purposes by the Integrated Biodiversity
Assessment Tool which is used to support
the implementation of the IUCN Red List
Strategic Plan. Across the partnership, IUCN
estimates that a minimum of $5.4 million isrequired annually for the IUCN Red List to
deliver its full potential to society.

39

Acknowledgments
IUCN is grateful to its donors for supporting the IUCN Red List, including Toyota Motor
Corporation (through the IUCN Toyota Red List Partnership), the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi, The Rufford Foundation and the Integrated Biodiversity Assessment Tool.
IUCN is also grateful to every single member of its Species Survival Commission who
assisted in delivering the IUCN Red List during 2017-2021.
IUCN is also extremely grateful to the Red List Partners for continued institutional
commitment to producing the IUCN Red List.

VULNERABLE
VU

Image credits: Splendid Waxcap (Hygrocybe splendidissima) © John Bjarne Jordal

40

41

Donate:The IUCN Red List depends on donations
and long-term partnerships to continue
its important work assessing andreassessing the conservation statusof the world’s species.

Contact
Find out how you can work with us tocreate a more complete Barometer of Life:

IUCNredlist.org/support/donate
redlist@IUCN.org

42

The IUCN Red List of Threatened SpeciesTM is
produced by the Red List Partnership, currently:
ABQ BioPark, Arizona State University, BirdLife
International, Botanic Gardens Conservation
International, Conservation International, International
Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Missouri
Botanical Gardens, NatureServe, Re:Wild, Royal
Botanic Gardens Kew, Sapienza University of Rome,IUCN Species Survival Commission, Texas A & M
University and Zoological Society of London.