Thousands of species 'facing extinction'
Published: Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:30:00
An extinction crisis is threatening 17,291 of the world's species, with 70 per cent of plants under threat. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) today released its Red List of threatened species, which warned an extinction crisis was threatening the natural world. Of the 47,677 species assessed, 17,291 were threatened with extinction. Of those, 21 per cent of all known mammals, 30 per cent of all known amphibians, 12 per cent of all known birds, 28 per cent of reptiles, 37 per cent of freshwater fishes, 70 per cent of plants, 35 per cent of invertebrates assessed were under threat.
The IUCN Red List is the world's most comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of plant and animal species. "The scientific evidence of a serious extinction crisis is mounting," said Jane Smart, director of IUCN's biodiversity conservation group. "January sees the launch of the international year of biodiversity. The latest analysis of the IUCN Red List shows the 2010 target to reduce biodiversity loss will not be met. It's time for governments to start getting serious about saving species and make sure it's high on their agendas for next year, as we're rapidly running out of time."
Of the world's 5,490 mammals, 79 are extinct or extinct in the wild, with a further 188 critically endangered, 449 endangered and 505 vulnerable. A further 293 reptiles were added to the list this year, with the list also showing that 1,895 of the planet's 6,285 amphibians are in danger of extinction, making them the most threatened group of species known to date. Scientists from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) have contributed 72 per cent of the new data added to the Red List. Dr Ben Collen, research fellow at ZSL's Institute of Zoology, said: "We must take decisive action to reverse the serious declines we see in wildlife.
"We need to ensure that our enduring legacy is not to wipe out the small things that provide us with great benefits such as nutrient cycling and climate regulation." Of the 12,151 plants on the IUCN Red List, 8,500 are threatened with extinction, with 114 already extinct or extinct in the wild. There are now 3,120 freshwater fishes on the IUCN Red List, up 510 species from last year.
Professor Jonathan Baillie, director of conservation programmes at ZSL, added: "The commitment to our environment and the next generation must start at the Copenhagen climate change negotiations." While, Craig Hilton-Taylor, manager of the IUCN Red List Unit, warned: "This year's IUCN Red List makes for sobering reading. These results are just the tip of the iceberg. "
And the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has said more must be done to stop the decline in biodiversity. "The continued and unprecedented loss of species must not be accepted as just a sad reality we can do nothing about. Biodiversity loss is an alarming indicator of the general health of our planet and for the wellbeing of our own species. We must act to halt this decline," said Mark Wright, conservation science advisor at WWF-UK.
"In 2002, a globally endorsed commitment on the Convention on Biological Diversity promised to deliver a significant reduction in the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010. We're not even close to meeting this. This failure and the mechanisms to overcome it will need to be the dominant agenda item on next year’s meeting of the parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity."
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