Clarifying misconceptions of extinction risk assessment with the IUCN Red List

Clarifying misconceptions of extinction risk assessment with the IUCN Red List.

The identification of species at risk of extinction is a central goal of conservation. As the use of data compiled for IUCN Red List assessments expands, a number of misconceptions regarding the purpose, application and use of the IUCN Red List categories and criteria have arisen. We outline five such classes of misconception; the most consequential drive proposals for adapted versions of the c...

The Iucn Red List of Threatened Speciestm

Polar Bears (Ursus maritimus) are facing a range of threats that might impact their future population status (see section Threats below). The IUCN Polar Bear Specialist Group (PBSG) regards loss of sea-ice habitat due to climate warming as the most serious threat to future Polar Bear survival. We therefore based our Red List assessment on this threat factor only, recognizing that sea-ice condit...

The value of the IUCN Red List for conservation.

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is the most comprehensive resource detailing the global conservation status of plants and animals. The 2004 edition represents a milestone in the four-decade long history of the Red List, including the first Global Amphibian Assessment and a near doubling in assessed species since 2000. Moreover, the Red List assessment process itself has developed substa...

Guidelines for Using the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria

Improving generation length estimates for the IUCN Red List

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List classifies species according to their risk of extinction, informing local to global conservation decisions. Here we look to advance the estimation of generation length, which is used as a time-scalar in the Red List as a way of accounting for differences in species' life-histories. We calculated or predicted generation lengt...