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The IUCN Red List of Threatened SpeciesTM is internationally recognised as the most authoritative inventory on the conservation status of species on a global scale and has been extraordinarily successful at drawing attention to biodiversity loss. This valuable tool provides a replicable protocol for determining the extinction risk of species and has been applied globally.
Following the success of the IUCN Red List and the global IUCN Categories and Criteria, there was increasing demand for a procedure to apply the IUCN system at the regional level. In 2003,
IUCN published guidelines to assess the conservation status of species at the regional and national level.
As conservation planning primarily occurs at the local, national or regional level, it is important to have this information in the form of Regional Red Lists (RRLs) which provide a practical means of assessing species status and translating this information into national policies with effective solutions.
Regional Red Lists assist nations and regions in:
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Determining the conservation status and trends of species
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Identifying species or ecosystems under greatest threat
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Informing conservation planning and priority setting
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Raising awareness of threatened species
Figure 1. Countries with National Red Lists using IUCN Categories and Criteria (dark red) and other systems (bright red). Data from Collen et al. 2008, Miller et al. 2007 and UNEP-WCMC 1994.
Currently over 100 countries and regions have reportedly developed National and Regional Red Lists (Figure 1). However, these documents have been scattered in university libraries, government buildings and environment ministries throughout the world such that their potential for use, sharing and learning has not been fully realised. Similarly, there have been many individuals working on threatened species programmes throughout the world with little exchange of knowledge and experiences. The Zoological Society of London is leading the development of an active global network of countries and individuals working on National Red Lists. This involves bringing all of the existing National Red List information together into one database and one website. With this centralised network there will be opportunities to learn from each other’s experiences in both conducting Red Lists and in using this information for conservation planning and priority setting. This site contains national and regional Red Lists from around the world as well as species action plans. It is not a part of The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™. The assessments on this site that follow the IUCN Categories and Criteria are not necessarily endorsed by IUCN. Information sheet on the National Red List network
References: Collen, B., Ram, M., Zamin, T. & McRae, L. 2008. The tropical biodiversity data gap: addressing disparity in global monitoring. Tropical Conservation Science. 1 (2):97-110. Available online: tropicalconservationscience.org. Miller, R.M., Rodríguez, J.P., Aniskowicz-Fowler, T., Bambaradeniya, C., Boles, R., Eaton, M.A., Gärdenfors, U., Keller, V., Molur, S., Walker, S., Pollock, C. 2007. National Threatened Species Listing Based on IUCN Criteria and Regional Guidelines: Current Status and Future Perspectives. Conservation Biology. 21 (3):684-696. World Conservation Monitoring Centre (Comp.), Groombridge, B. (Ed). 1994. Biodiversity Data Sourcebook. World Conservation Press, Cambridge, UK. 155pp.
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