Current News

In October 2008, the IUCN Red List web site was given a brand new look. The new site has more functionality than ever before. This also means that the site has more detailed search pages that allow increased flexibility in the searches that can be carried out, introduces the ability to store searches for future use or to share search results with others, and allows users to download range data for mammals and amphibians.

In order to help users to navigate their way through the wider range of functions on the web site, a set of instructions have been developed (The Users’ Guide to the IUCN Red List web site. Version 1.0 (March 2009)) and this document is now available to download from the link below (PDF, 2.47 MB). The document contains several sections, providing guidance on how to search the web site, how to navigate through the species fact sheets, how to save searches and export data from the site, and where to find and download GIS data for amphibians and mammals. Use the index to access the section you want (just click on the topic in the index).

A video tutorial on how to search the IUCN Red List web site is also available (follow the link below).

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A new flowering plant belonging to the Medinilla plant group has been discovered in the highlands of Matasawalevu village, on the island of Kadavu in Fiji. The plant was found during a biodiversity assessment of the Nakasaleka district carried out as part of IUCN’s Water and Nature Initiative (WANI).

There are around 193 known species of Medinilla, occurring in Madagascar, Africa, South Asia and the Pacific Islands. Of the 193 species, 11 can only be found in Fiji. One of them is the Tagimoucia flower, Medinilla waterhousei, the floral emblem of Fiji.

IUCN’s WANI works with local communities to help them better manage water resources on Kadavu island. The team was monitoring the degradation of the river basin in the area when the new plant was discovered.

“The discovery of this previously unknown species of plant gives us a sense of just how fragile nature can be,” says Dr Milika Sobey, Water and Wetlands Programme Coordinator at IUCN’s Oceania Regional Office. “The fact that it was found during work on a watershed management project is one more lesson in how important it is that nature is included in the priorities for water management.”

“Through the Water and Nature Initiative IUCN has shown in more than 30 countries worldwide that by working with local people and partners, it is possible to put in place sustainable solutions that meet the water needs of both people and nature,” says Dr Mark Smith, Director of the IUCN Global Water Programme.

The species was found on the border of grassland and primary forest. This location makes it highly vulnerable to bush fires that are common in the area.

“We only managed to find one plant of this kind,” says Mr Marika Tuiwawa, of the University of the South Pacific’s Institute of Applied Science, IUCN member and partner in the WANI project, who discovered the species. “Commercial agricultural activities and uncontrolled bush fires are the main threats to this species. A simple fire could destroy it in a matter of minutes.”

The plant’s common name has not been confirmed yet but the name Medinilla matasawalevu has been suggested to illustrate its location.

“The fact that only one plant of this kind was found so far and that it occurs in such a vulnerable place should set alarm bells ringing,” says Dr Jane Smart, Global Director of IUCN’s Biodiversity Conservation Group. “The challenge now is to protect the new species and raise awareness of its importance among local communities, to secure its long term future.”

Work is currently underway to confirm the exact classification of the new species, for which DNA research may be carried out.

In Colombia, work is under way to save a group of species whose fate is intimately linked with our own.

Amphibians—frogs, toads, salamanders and the lesser-known caecilians —are the most threatened of all vertebrates. Over 6,200 species have been identified; of those 41% are at risk of extinction and almost half are in decline. Their disappearance would have dramatic consequences for species that share the same ecosystems -including people.

Medical marvels

The permeable skin of amphibians makes them susceptible to changes in the environment, but also arms them with significant biomedical properties. A painkiller isolated in the skin of a frog is 200 times more potent than morphine. Potential treatments for HIV and skin cancer have been isolated from the skin of amphibians. Amphibians also regulate crop pests and vectors of disease such as malaria. If we do not act quickly, we risk losing many similar benefits before they are even discovered.

New discoveries

The Chocó region of Colombia is a biodiversity ‘hotspot’ particularly for amphibians but it is under protected and under threat, not least from road building and pressure from biofuel and timber interests. Recent surveys located one critical area with many threatened bird species, such as the Endangered Gold-ringed Tanager, and a new species of toad, on properties that were being cleared for cattle pasture.

A project funded by SOS (Save our Species) is being carried out by IUCN Member Conservation International (CI) in cooperation with the local NGO Fundación ProAves to prevent further amphibian extinctions and secure a future for the many other species that survive here.

Two species believed to be entirely new to science, as well as numerous other threatened species, have been safeguarded by the creation of a new protected area, tackling the top threat to species in this region—habitat loss.

“Colombia leads the world in sheer numbers of threatened amphibian species. Despite the challenges there are also many opportunities for conservation with swathes of steamy jungles harbouring myriad unique species, and we are thrilled to be able to support local efforts to protect Colombia's frogs,” says Project Leader and amphibian conservation champion Robin Moore.

On patrol

A research and forest guard station has been built that will help protect and manage this area. A forest guard is now situated full-time at the Reserve which is critical in enforcing protection of the area.

Ecotourism is a way of supporting the project in the long term and paying guests are now visiting the station, providing a source of revenue for the park. Local communities are being introduced to the importance of amphibians and the value of ecotourism in generating income—this goes hand-in-hand with conservation.

Amphibians are at risk from a lethal cocktail of threats that include disease, climate change and pollution. Stemming the decline and extinction of amphibian species will require targeting the continued loss and degradation of habitat. Because of their typically small home ranges, amphibians can be safeguarded through the protection of relatively small tracts of suitable habitat and provide an ideal target group for action to halt biodiversity loss.

How can we save biodiversity if we don’t know the threats facing our species and what the priorities are?

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ is going from strength to strength in providing the world with the information needed to guide conservation action from the local to global level.

Far more than a list of species and their status, the Red List is a powerful tool providing information on population size and trends, geographic range and habitat needs of species. Through the Red List we can find out if a species is being over-hunted, whether it is considered sacred, or whether it is protected by international law. We can find out whether biological traits such as a slow reproductive rate make it susceptible to overharvesting or whether its restricted range makes it vulnerable to climate change. We can also find out if a species is of particular value to people as a source of food, medicine or livelihood.

A one-stop shop

With distribution maps and photos, the Red List a ‘one-stop shop’ for biodiversity information and a key tool for decision making. As a sobering indictment of what we humans have done to our natural world, the Red List is too big to publish as a book. Instead the information is available as a searchable online database with the information freely available to all who can act on it. This includes government agencies, wildlife departments, NGOs, natural resource planners, researchers, the private sector and many others. The Red List helps target precious funding to where it can be most effectively used.

In 2010 the world’s governments agreed on a global target: ‘By 2020 the extinction of known threatened species has been prevented and their conservation status, particularly of those most in decline, has been improved and sustained.’ The Red List allows us to monitor progress towards this target.

The Red List is a joint effort of IUCN’s Species Programme and Species Survival Commission (SSC) with the input of IUCN Member organisations. Collectively, this network holds the most complete scientific knowledge base on the biology and current conservation status of species.

User-friendly

Many species are not listed as threatened simply because information on them is not available so there is a race against time to get more assessments done. IUCN and its networks are teaming up with a wider range of partners to increase coverage. They are also working with industry to find out how to package the Red List information to make it most useful to ‘customers’.

The aim is to ensure that the Red List serves as nature’s early warning system, identifying threats early enough so that corrective action can be taken. When the Saiga Antelope was listed as Critically Endangered on the Red List it drew international attention, leading to a conservation programme for the species. The 2004 IUCN Red List update showed that 30% of amphibians were at risk of extinction. As a result of this report, new conservation groups and alliances were formed to respond to the crisis, resulting in a huge effort to save amphibians from extinction over the past five years.

With habitat loss and degradation being a major cause of species decline, site-based management is an important conservation response. Several companies have begun to use Red List data as a baseline for determining the impact of their operations and to guide site management and restoration efforts.

A media sensation

Every year we see an increase in media coverage of reports based on the IUCN Red List from leading science journals and newspapers to television and radio. The Red List is also widely used by educators and students. Many zoos, aquariums and botanic gardens use Red List information on their animal enclosure signage.

“The IUCN Red List is critical as an indicator of the health of biodiversity, in identifying conservation needs and informing necessary changes in policy and legislation to drive conservation forward,” says Jean-Christophe Vié, Deputy Director of IUCN’s Global Species Programme. “The world is full of marvellous species that are rapidly moving towards becoming things of myth and legend if conservation efforts are not more successfully implemented—if we do not act now, future generations may not know what a Chinese Water Fir or a Bizarre-nosed Chameleon look like.”

It’s a long process to make the Red List achieve its full potential, but the will is strong. Quite simply, conservation would be lost without it.

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Two female western gray whales, Agent and Varvara, left the coast of Russia late last year and are now half-way across the Gulf of Alaska. For the second consecutive year, an international team of scientists successfully tagged endangered whales off Sakhalin Island and the team is now tracking the animals via satellite.

The western gray whale population is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species^TM. The estimated population size in 2010 was about 136 whales, including only around 30 mature females. Little is currently known about the migration routes and wintering areas of this population. Knowing more about their movements will make it easier to develop appropriate conservation measures.

Six whales have been tagged this year, but only Agent and Varvara are still being tracked; the other tags presumably came off. So far, they are following the same path as Flex, the male western gray whale that was tagged and tracked in 2010.

This research represents a major international collaboration and is conducted by A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IEE RAS) and Oregon State University Marine Mammal Institute in collaboration with the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service and Kronotsky State Nature Biosphere Reserve. The 2011 research is contracted through the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) with funding from Exxon Neftegas Ltd., Sakhalin Energy Investment Company Ltd. and Mrs Maja Hoffmann.

The wildlife of Southeast Asia is beautiful and mysterious but under threat. To help raise awareness and conservation funds for selected threatened animals in Southeast Asia, the International Union for Conservation of Nature Species Survival Commission (IUCN SSC) and the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) have teamed up to launch a new campaign.

The EAZA-IUCN SSC Southeast Asia campaign was initiated by EAZA in response to findings from IUCN that large animals (over 1kg) in Southeast Asia are at particular risk of decline and extinction due to illegal trade and habitat loss. The campaign will run until September 2012 and hopes to raise €750,000 for conservation projects to protect a number of different species in Southeast Asia.

Along with raising awareness and funds, the campaign also aims to help reduce the trade and hunting of animals in Southeast Asia, a major threat to many species as they are hunted for food and used in traditional medicines. A fourth aim of the campaign is to influence European consumer behaviour and demonstrate how this can positively benefit biodiversity.

So far there are six projects that the EAZA-IUCN SSC Southeast Asia campaign will support across the Southeast Asia region. Three involve specific species; the Rufous-headed hornbill (Aceros waldeni), the Saola (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis) and the Sumatran Rhino (Dicerorhinos sumatrensis). The remaining three projects support conservation work being done in the Hukaung Valley Wildlife Sanctuary, the Mekong River Basin and the Mesangat Wetland.

Co-chairs of the new campaign are Gary Betton, who works at Banham Zoo and is chair of the EAZA Camel and Camelid Taxonomic Group (TAG) and Will Duckworth who is the IUCN Red List Authority for the IUCN SSC Asian Wild Cattle Specialist Group. Both offer a great wealth of experience and enthusiasm.