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The latest update of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species should cause alarm over the continuing loss of species and the failure so far of mechanisms to arrest biodiversity loss, WWF says.
The 2009 Red List, issued by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, shows more than one-third (36 percent) of the 47,677 species assessed are threatened with extinction. The assessment featured a special focus on freshwater species, which are being hit hard by pollution, loss of wetlands and water diversions. The planet’s amphibians are the most threatened of all species with 1895 of 6285 species assessed in the Red List threatened with extinction.
The Red List ranks species according to their population status and threat levels. It shows the effects that habitat loss and degradation, over-exploitation, pollutants and climate change are having on the world’s species.
“As crucial climate talks in Copenhagen draw near and with the International Year of Biodiversity around the corner, this is a wake-up call for world leaders.” said Amanda Nickson, Director of the WWF International Species Programme. “We are a world away from protecting species from the threats they face and meeting the globally endorsed 2002 commitment of the Convention on Biological Diversity to deliver a significant reduction in the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010.”
“This failure and the mechanisms to overcome it will need to be the dominant agenda item on next year’s meeting of parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity.”
It is estimated that less than 3200 tigers exist in the wild in a wide arc of countries from far eastern Russia to India and Indonesia. Tigers - an apex predator residing at the top of its food chain - occupy less than seven percent of their original range, which has contracted 40 percent from 10 years ago.
“Tigers are a symbol of what is happening to many species across the globe, and demonstrate the urgent need for the world to come up with the political will, policies, resources and incentives to maintain a living and diverse planet,” says Nickson. “The IUCN is frank that its assessments are likely to understate the real extent of the loss of species.”
Red List home page
