More than 44,000 species of animals and plants around the world are threatened with extinction. That is more than a quarter of all species on earth, according to the Red List that the International Union for Nature Conservation IUCN presented on Monday at the climate conference in Dubai. A major cause is climate change, according to the IUCN.
The Red List has been maintained since 1963. It is the world’s largest list of status assessments of plants, animals and fungi. The list is considered the most important source for setting priorities in the field of nature conservation and nature policy.
This year the status of freshwater fish was assessed for the first time. It shows that 25 percent of all freshwater fish are threatened with extinction (3,086 of the 14,898 species). In addition to climate change, falling river water levels, salinization of freshwater due to advancing seawater, pollution, overfishing and the advance of invasive exotic species are important causes.
Nearly 160,000 species
A total of 157,190 species are on the Red List. 26 percent of mammals are threatened with extinction. This also applies to 41 percent of amphibians, 37 percent of sharks and rays, 36 percent of corals and 34 percent of conifers. The good news, according to the IUCN, is that the algazel, a horned antelope, has returned to the Sahel desert after the animal was previously considered extinct. The saiga antelope in Russia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia is also doing better again, after previously being classified as critically endangered.
The algazel is the fourth large mammal species to successfully return in the past hundred years. “That proves that nature conservation efforts work. But to sustain those achievements, we must decisively address the interconnected impacts of climate change and biodiversity crises,” said Razan Al Mubarak, President of the IUCN.
Mahogany trees are listed as endangered on the Red List for the first time. In the past 180 years, 60 percent of these trees have disappeared. This is because these trees are still cut down frequently and illegally, because mahogany wood is highly sought after in many countries. The Atlantic salmon is also in the danger zone, now that its population has declined by 23 percent. The IUCN warns about the so-called sea lice, which occurs in farmed salmon. This louse threatens wild salmon, which is of serious concern to conservationists.