This means one-third (36%) of the species in the List are currently facing danger. The results reveal that 21% of all known mammals, 30% of amphibians, 12% of birds, 28% of reptiles, 37% of freshwater fishes, 70% of plants, and 35% of invertebrates assessed so far are under threat.
The assessment had 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 1,895 out of the 6,285 species assessed included the Red List. The 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.
In Lake Dianchi in China, the assessment found all seven freshwater snails and 12 out of the 13 freshwater fish species new to the List were threatened by over-harvesting, pollution and introduced fish species.
Reacting to the IUCN report, the WWF on Wednesday issued a statement pointing to the nation´s “failure” in the conservation area. The statement said that the IUCN update, on the eve of major international events in biodiversity planned for next year, “underlines how the world´s nations have fallen short of the global commitment” to reduce the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010. The symbol of the failure, WWF suggests, could be the tiger, with just an estimated 3,200 in the wild in a rapidly contracting fraction of their former range.
The statement quoted Amanda Nickson, Director of the WWF International Species Program, as saying, “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.”
Through its global initiatives, WWF is pursuing major efforts to arrest biodiversity decline in some of the most spectacular and highly diverse places on the planet, and to recover populations of some of the most endangered species, such as tigers.
Significant international meetings next year to address biodiversity loss and the threats to planetary life support systems include major conferences of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Nickson noted that the CBD´s 2010 target had probably underestimated the growing impact of climate change, which is “now being increasingly recognized as an additional threat.”
However, in a rare ray of hope in the new assessment, one freshwater fish, the Australian Grayling, has been moved from the Vulnerable to the Near Threatened list as a result of conservation efforts which included putting in fish ladders at dams, improving streamside vegetation and policing anglers.
Global figures for 2009 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
Total species assessed = 47,677
Total Extinct or Extinct in the Wild = 875 (2%) [Extinct 809; Extinct in the Wild = 66]
Total threatened = 17,291 (36%) [Critically Endangered = 3,325; Endangered = 4,891; Vulnerable = 9,075]
Total Near Threatened = 3,650 (8%)
Total Lower Risk/conservation dependent = 281 (<1%)
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