Copyright 2000, Environmental News Network
October 25, 2000
By Marilyn Bauer

World Conservation Union director general Maritta von Bieberstein Kock-Weser has had time to study the numbers, and the shock hasn't worn off.

"The fact that the number of critically endangered species has increased — mammals from 169 to 180, birds from 168 to 182 — (is) a jolting surprise, even to those already familiar with today’s increasing threats to biodiversity," she said.

The findings come from a World Conservation Union (IUCN) study — the most comprehensive analysis of global conservation to date — which identifies 11,046 plants and animals from a study of 8,000 species and subspecies around the globe as being at risk.

"These findings should be taken very seriously by the global community," said Bieberstein Kock-Weser.

In the wake of the report, the IUCN is joining forces with various conservation groups, governments and local communities to bring awareness of the plight of planetary biodiversity.

The groups are seeking more legal protection for at-risk animals and habitats, the creation of conservation “hot spots” to protect areas in danger and an increase in spending above the current $6 billion figure.Since the IUCN's last assessment in 1996, the 2000 Red List of Threatened Species reveals that critically endangered primates increased from 13 to 19 and threatened albatross species jumped from three to 16 due to long-line fisheries.

The report has disquieting indicators at every turn. Endangered freshwater turtle species, heavily exploited for food and medicinal use in Asia, increased from 10 to 24.

Plants and animals are classified as threatened if they meet strict scientific criteria established in three categories: critically endangered, endangered or vulnerable.

“The Red List is solid documentation of the global extinction crisis, and it reveals just the tip of the iceberg,” said Russell Mittermeier, president of Conservation International and chairman of IUCN’s primate specialist group. “Many wonderful creatures will be lost in the first few decades of the 21st century unless we greatly increase levels of support, involvement and commitment to conservation.”

The report recommends that human and financial resources be mobilized at between 10 and 100 times the current level to address the ongoing crisis — a crises that includes an extinction rate 1,000 to 10,000 times higher than it should be under natural conditions. Not surprisingly, the culprit is the human population, according to the report.

“By quantifying human impact on the natural environment," said IUCN member Craig Hilton-Taylor, referring to development, deforestation, agriculture and fishing, “the Red List gives greater insight into the processes driving extinction.”

Though the report reveals that one in every four mammals and one in every eight birds are at risk, scientists say the statistics only scratch the surface. With approximately 1.75 million known species, there are millions which remain undiscovered. Many may become extinct before they are even identified, much less assessed by scientists.

The Sumatran rhinoceros, Dicerorhinus sumatrensis, is considered the most endangered of all rhinoceros species living in fragmented populations in Indonesia and Malaysia.

Researchers also speculate that more than 4,000 species on the Red List will move from vulnerable to endangered within the first decade of the 21st century. Add to that the 816 species that have disappeared in the past 500 years, and the accelerated threat to biodiversity looms large.

Indonesia, India, Brazil and China are among the countries with the most threatened mammals and birds, while plant species are declining rapidly in South and Central America, Central and West Africa and Southeast Asia. Habitat loss and degradation affect 89 percent of all threatened birds, 83 percent of mammals and 91 percent of threatened plants that were assessed.

Habitats with the highest number of threatened mammals and birds are lowland and mountain tropical rain forests. Freshwater habitats are extremely vulnerable with many threatened fish, reptile, amphibian and invertebrate species. Error: Unable to read footer file.