09/30/00 -- Mass Extinction Intensifies as Rates of Species Loss Grow Worldwide

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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

Mass Extinction Intensifies as Rates of Species Loss Grow Worldwide

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Forest Networking a Project of Forests.org

http://forests.org/ -- Forest Conservation Archives & Portal

09/30/00

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY

The current mass extinction crisis is intensifying and moving closer

to a climax. The most recent "red list" of endangered plants and

animals indicates that 11,046 species face a high risk of extinction,

almost all due to human activities. Habitat loss -- mostly caused by

deforestation and urban sprawl -- is a factor in roughly 90 percent

of the endangered listings. The Red List, compiled by the

International Union for Conservation of Nature, is considered the

most authoritative and comprehensive status assessment of global

biodiversity. The 2000 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species can be

found at http://www.redlist.org/ , and below are several articles

related to its unveiling. Given the state of knowledge regarding how

many species exist and their condition, this study almost certainly

underestimates the extent of the extinction crisis. Humans and their

societies continue to wantonly shred the Earth's biological fabric,

with little if any consideration given to requirements for global,

regional and local ecological sustainability. The intensifying mass

extinction crisis, along with accelerating large-scale collapse of

habitats and ecosystems, are indicators of the need for immediate

policy initiatives to halt and reverse ecologically destructive

activities that are threatening imminent global ecological collapse.

Global sustainability is at stake.

g.b.

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ITEM #1

Title: Conservation group adds 200 animals to endangered list

Date: September 28, 2000

GLAND, Switzerland (CNN) -- Citing a dramatic increase in the number

of species threatened with extinction, the World Conservation Union

released its "red list" of endangered plants and animals Thursday.

In the first update of the list in four years, 11,046 plants and

animals were said to be "facing a high risk of extinction in the near

future, in almost all cases as a result of human activities."

The new list adds over 200 animal species worldwide to the most

critically endangered list, including 11 mammals, 14 birds and 38

reptiles.

While habitat loss -- largely through deforestation and the spread of

cities -- is a factor in roughly 90 percent of the endangered

listings, the group highlighted three types of animals under attack

from specific human threats.

Six primate species were added the list, largely due to the "bush

meat" trade in parts of Asia and Africa. Animals like the red-shanked

douc langur of Vietnam Official Red List and Laos are increasingly

targeted site for meat for human consumption.

Thirteen different species of albatross have been placed on the list.

The conservation union said the large seabirds are victims of

longline fisheries -- where vessels trail miles-long steel cables

with hundreds of baited hooks.

Reptile species like the Asian three-striped box turtle are under

threat due to their value to the Asian traditional medicine trade.

World Conservation Union Director Maritta von Bieberstein Koch-Weser

said the growing list is further confirmation that a wave of species

loss -- often speculated by scientists -- is well under way. "These

findings should be taken very seriously by the global community," she

said.

Human activity was cited as the cause of 816 plant and animal species

having vanished in the past 500 years. However, the conservation

group cautions that our knowledge of how many species exist -- or

used to exist -- is still partial.

The 5,611 threatened plants currently listed as threatened may

represent only a small fraction of the number of species truly under

attack since the group estimates that only 4 percent of all known

plant species have been fully evaluated -- and many more plant

species may have not yet been discovered.

The updated list comes in the wake of several high-profile

announcements on endangered species. In the past year, the gray wolf,

bald eagle, peregrine falcon, and gray whale have all recovered

sufficiently to be removed from the U.S. government's Endangered

Species list. Earlier this month, researchers in West Africa

confirmed that overhunting has led to the extinction of the first

primate to disappear in over a century -- a 20-pound monkey species

called Miss Waldron's red colobus.

The recommendation for slowing the disappearance of plants and

animals includes increasing the commitment of human and financial

resources between 10 and 100 times. The new "red list" was released

in advance of next week's World Conservation Congress in Amman,

Jordan.

The Swiss-based group describes itself as the world's largest

conservation organization whose participating members include 112

national government agencies and 735 non-government groups. The list

is comprised of data from governments, private groups, and research

institutions in virtually all the world's countries.

ITEM #2

Title: Extinction risk grows around globe

Date: September 29, 2000

Green turtle females lay upward of 100 eggs a year on Caribbean

beaches in Central America - but today just one of those eggs will

grow into an adult turtle.

Poachers from Mexico to Panama slaughter baby turtles to make

tasty filets from their spongy, grayish-green flesh. Others, too

impatient to wait for them to be born, sell their plundered eggs

for exotic omelets.

The species is just one of the 11,046 plants and animals that risk

disappearing forever, according to the most comprehensive analysis

of global conservation ever undertaken, the World Conservation

Union's 2000 Red List of Threatened Species. The report, released

Thursday, examined some 18,000 species and subspecies around the

globe. Earth has estimated 14 million species - and only 1.75

million have been documented.

Conservationists estimate that the current extinction rate is

1,000 to 10,000 times higher than it should be under natural

conditions. That means that in the first decades of the 21st

century, many creatures - from a majestic Albatross to Asian

freshwater turtles - may join the ranks of the flightless Dodo

bird.

The primary reason: humans. Everything from expanding cities to

deforestation, agriculture and fishing pose a significant threat

to the planet's biodiversity. In the last 500 years, some 816

species have disappeared - some permanently, while others exist

only in artificial settings, such as zoos.

"Animals are a finite resource much like oil in a lot of ways,"

said Enrique Lahmann, regional director of the World Conservation

Union. "But because the public does not need these species to

drive every morning, it is easy to forget about them."

Of the 11,046 plants and animals at risk of extinction, 1,184 are

in Central America and Mexico, where poverty and logging are

teaming up to shrink habitats and decimate species, according to

the study.

"What this latest list shows is that many of the animals most have

come to associate with the jungle are in danger," said Marino

Gemenez, adjunct head of the group's Species Survival Commission,

a network of 7,000 international species experts who researched

the report.

Even Guatemala's national bird - a small green creature with a red

chest and long tail-feathers known as the quetzal - is at high

risk, along with other lesser known regional creatures including

the Pacific pilot whale and the Mexican long-nosed bat.

The report reveals that Indonesia, India and China are among the

countries with the most threatened mammals and birds. But Central

America and Mexico as a region have a higher percentage of

problems and rank among the world's poorest defenders of native

plants and animals, Lahmann said by telephone from his office in

San Jose, Costa Rica.

The contrast of richly diverse terrain, coupled with poverty and

often deficient environmental controls, has left this part of the

world facing the potentially crippling loss of hundreds of plants

and animals that are thriving elsewhere, Lahmann said.

Further, problems are getting worse - plants and animals in Mexico

and Central America are being threatened at a rate 10 times that

they faced a decade ago, Lahmann said.

Besides poaching, the most serious threat is the clearing of

forest areas for crops and cattle, and logging by lumber companies

or rural families in search of firewood.

Adding to the problem are forest fires that rage out of control

while cash-strapped governments look on helplessly.

As in Africa and Asia, another major factor is the sale of exotic

animals as pets.

The illegal smuggling of animals to dealers has become the

third-most profitable smuggling racket behind drugs and guns, said

Gustavo Aldofo Martinez, field researcher for Guatemala's Jungle

Life Rescue Association.

Martinez said a captured spider monkey or Belizean Crocodile can

fetch up to $5,000 overseas.

Poachers work so fast that natural predators which once snacked on

green turtle hatchlings and eggs are now going hungry.

"They lay a lot of eggs because nature has always been a very

tough place for eggs and for little turtles," Lahmann said. "But

nature wasn't prepared for man."

ITEM #3

Title: Red List of Threatened Species Reveals Global Extinction

Crisis

Source: c Environment News Service (ENS) 2000

Date: September 28, 2000

GENEVA, Switzerland, September 28, 2000 (ENS) - Earth's most

critically endangered animals and plants have disappeared very

rapidly since 1996, the world's largest international conservation

organisation reported today.

One in four mammal species and one in eight species of birds are

facing a high risk of extinction in the near future, in almost all

cases as a result of human activities. The total number of threatened

animal species has increased from 5,205 to 5,435.

The 2000 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is released once every

four years by IUCN - The World Conservation Union. The Red List is

considered the most authoritative and comprehensive status assessment

of global biodiversity.

Founded in 1948, the IUCN brings together 77 states, 112 government

agencies, 735 non-governmental organizations, 35 affiliates, and some

10,000 scientists and experts from 181 countries in a worldwide

partnership.

Drawing on all these sources of information, the Red List report uses

scientific criteria to classify species into one of eight categories:

Extinct, Extinct in the Wild, Critically Endangered, Endangered,

Vulnerable, Lower Risk, Data Deficient and Not Evaluated.

A species is classed as threatened if it falls in the Critically

Endangered, Endangered or Vulnerable categories.

"The fact that the number of critically endangered species has

increased - mammals from 169 to 180; birds from 168 to 182 - was a

jolting surprise, even to those already familiar with today's

increasing threats to biodiversity. These findings should be taken

very seriously by the global community," says Maritta von Bieberstein

Koch-Weser, IUCN's director general.

The magnitude of risk, shown by movements to the higher risk

categories, has increased, although the overall percentage of

threatened mammals and birds has not greatly changed in four years,

the IUCN found.

PRIMATES' STATUS PRECARIOUS

Primates such as apes and monkeys showed the greatest increase in the

number of threatened mammals, from 96 to 116 species. Many changes

were found to be caused by increased habitat loss and hunting,

particularly the bushmeat trade.

The number of Critically Endangered primates increased from 13 to 19.

Endangered primates number 46 today, up from 29 four years ago.

Russell Mittermeier, president of Conservation International and

chair of IUCN's Primate Specialist Group says, "The Red List is solid

documentation of the global extinction crisis, and it reveals just

the tip of the iceberg." "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, he

warns.

"Human and financial resources must be mobilised at between 10 and

100 times the current level to address this crisis, the Red List

analysis urges.

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 habitat degradation affect 89 percent of all

threatened birds, 83 percent of mammals, and 91 percent of threatened

plants assessed.

Habitats with the highest number of threatened mammals and birds are

lowland and mountain tropical rainforest.

As in 1996, Indonesia has the highest number of threatened mammals,

135 species. India with 80 threatened mammal species and Brazil with

75 threatened species have moved ahead of China where 72 species are

threatened.

FRAGILE FRESH WATER SPECIES

Freshwater habitats are "extremely vulnerable" with many threatened

fish, reptile, amphibian and invertebrate species. Freshwater

turtles, heavily exploited for food and medicinal use in Asia, went

from 10 to 24 Critically Endangered species in the past four years.

"Hunting of these species is unregulated and unmanaged, and the

harvest levels are far too high for the species to sustain," the IUCN

warns. As populations disappear in Southeast Asia, there are signs

that this trade is increasingly shifting to India and further afield

to the Americas and Africa.

Other Asian species, such as snakes and salamanders, are also heavily

exploited for use in traditional Chinese medicine, but the effects of

this and other pressures on most of these species have not yet been

assessed.

A number of amphibian species have shown rapid and unexplained

disappearances, for example in Australia, Costa Rica, Panama and

Puerto Rico, the IUCN reports.

The report points to "extremely serious deterioration" in the status

of river dwelling species largely due to water development projects

and other habitat changes. One of the major threats to lake dwelling

species is introduced species. A systematic analysis of the status of

these species will be undertaken in the next three years.

BIRDS AT RISK

BirdLife International produced the global status analysis that forms

a major component of the Red List. The most significant changes have

been in the albatrosses and petrels, with an increase from 32 to 55

threatened species.

Sixteen albatross species are now threatened compared to only three

in 1996, as a result of longline fishing. Of the remaining five

albatross species, four are now near-threatened. Threatened penguin

species have doubled from five to 10. These increases reflect the

growing threats to the marine environment," the IUCN reports.

BirdLife International has started an international campaign "Save

the albatross: keeping the world's seabirds off the hook" to reduce

the accidental bycatch of seabirds through longline fisheries

adopting appropriate mitigation measures.

The Philippines, another biodiversity hotspot, has lost 97 percent of

its original vegetation and has more Critically Endangered birds than

any other country.

IMPERILLED PLANTS

The IUCN Red List includes 5,611 species of threatened plants, many

of which are trees.

The total number of globally threatened plant species is still small

in relation to the total number of plant species, but this is because

most plant species have still not been assessed for their level of

threat, IUCN says.

The only major plant group to have been comprehensively assessed is

the conifers, of which 140 species, 16 percent of the total, are

threatened.

Assessments undertaken by The Nature Conservancy, not yet

incorporated in the Red List, indicate that one-third of the plant

species in North America are threatened.

THE NUMBERS

In the last 500 years, human activity has forced 816 species to

extinction or extinction in the wild.

One hundred and three extinctions have occurred since 1800,

indicating an extinction rate 50 times greater than the natural rate.

Many species are lost before they are discovered.

The 1996 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals included 169 Critically

Endangered and 315 Endangered mammals. The 2000 analysis now lists

180 Critically Endangered and 340 Endangered mammals.

For birds, there is an increase from 168 to 182 Critically Endangered

and from 235 to 321 Endangered species.

A total of 18,276 species and subspecies are included in the 2000 Red

List. Approximately 25 percent of reptiles, 20 percent of amphibians

and 30 percent of fishes, mainly freshwater, so far assessed are

listed as threatened.

Since only a small proportion of these groups has been assessed, the

percentage of threatened species could be much higher, the IUCN says.

As well as classifying species according to their extinction risk,

the Red List provides information on species range, population

trends, main habitats, major threats and conservation measures, both

already in place, and those needed. It allows insight into the

processes driving extinction.

The release of the 2000 Red List comes a week before the second World

Conservation Congress in Amman, Jordan, where members of IUCN will

meet to define global conservation policy for the next four years,

including ways of addressing the growing extinction crisis.

The 2000 IUCN Red List has been produced for the first time on CD-ROM

and is searchable on its own website at http://www.redlist.org. The

analysis is published as a booklet.

ITEM #4

Title: Growing threat to rare species

Date: September 28, 2000

By: environment correspondent Alex Kirby

A quarter of the world's mammal species face a high risk of

extinction very soon, a conservation group says.

The warning, from IUCN - The World Conservation Union, says an eighth

of the world's bird species are at similar risk.

IUCN believes the world should be spending at least 10 times more

than it does to halt the slide to extinction.

Over the last two centuries, it says, extinctions have been occurring

50 times faster than the natural rate.

The assessment comes in the 2000 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species,

probably the most comprehensive and authoritative inventory of

species' global conservation status.

Worse than feared

IUCN is a partnership of states, non-governmental groups and

scientific bodies, drawing on the expertise of about 10,000

individual scientists.

It be even worse than scientists realise, with "dramatic" declines in

many species, including reptiles and primates.

Since the last assessment in 1996, critically endangered primate

species have increased from 13 to 19, and freshwater turtles from 10

to 24.

Threatened albatross species have risen from three to 16, because of

long-line fisheries.

The total number of critically endangered mammal species is now 180,

11 more than in 1996, while bird species have risen from 168 to 182.

'Jolting surprise'

Those listed as threatened to some degree number 11,046 plant and

animal species, in almost all cases because of human activities.

IUCN says this means that 24% of mammals and 12% of birds "face a

high risk of extinction in the near future".

The list includes 18,276 species and subspecies. About 25% of

reptiles, 20% of amphibians and 30% of fish so far assessed are

listed as threatened.

Threatened plants number 5,611, but as only about 4% of the world's

described plants have been evaluated the true figure is much higher.

IUCN's director general, Dr Maritta Koch-Weser, said the rise in the

number of species at acute risk was "a jolting surprise. These

findings should be taken very seriously by the global community".

Poised to disappear

The chair of IUCN's primate specialist group is Dr Russell A

Mittermeier, president of Conservation International.

He said: "The Red List is solid documentation of the global

extinction crisis, and it reveals just the tip of the iceberg.

"Many wonderful creatures will be lost in the first few decades of

this century unless we greatly increase levels of support,

involvement and commitment to conservation."

IUCN says human and financial resources need to be from 10 to 100

times greater than they are to tackle the crisis.

It says the rise in the number of threatened primate species, from 96

to 116, owes much to increased habitat loss and to hunting,

especially the bushmeat trade.

Gene pools depleted

The rapid decline in tortoises and freshwater turtles in southeast

Asia is being caused by "heavy exploitation for food and medicinal

use".

Dr Craig Hilton-Taylor, a conservation biologist, is responsible for

IUCN's Red List programme.

He told BBC News Online: "One of the priorities is to set far more

land aside, to reverse the present deforestation and persuade the

logging companies to go for sustainable use.

"But you've also got to take people's needs for food and land into

account. If you can get them to appreciate their resources, then

green tourism can be a serious part of the answer.

"A lot of species are on the brink, but hanging in there, producing

perhaps one offspring every couple of decades - animals like the

Sumatran rhinoceros.

"It may take them a long time to vanish completely. But their gene

pools will have been disastrously depleted long before then."

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