IUCN Red List Criteria for Endangered

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A male Turks and Caicos Rock Iguana (Cyclura carinata). This species is endemic to the Turks and Caicos islands and is Critically Endangered. (Picture taken on Little Water Cay, a nature reserve, by Faraaz Damji, via Wikimedia Commons. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported)

The IUCN Species Programworking with the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) has for more than four decades been assessing the conservation status of species, subspecies, varieties, and even selected subpopulations on a global scale in order to highlight taxa threatened with extinction, and therefore promote their conservation.

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species provides taxonomic, conservation status and distribution information on plants and animals that have been globally evaluated using the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria. This system is designed to determine the relative risk of extinction, and the main purpose of the IUCN Red List is to catalogand highlight those plants and animals that are facing a higher risk of global extinction (i.e. those listed as Critically Endangered, Endangered and Vulnerable). The IUCN Red List also includes information on plants and animals that are categorized as Extinct or Extinct in the Wild; on taxa that cannot be evaluated because of insufficient information (i.e., are Data Deficient); and on plants and animals that are either close to meeting the threatened thresholds or that would be threatened were it not for an ongoing taxon-specific conservation program(i.e., are Near Threatened).

The IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria are intended to be an easily and widely understood system for classifying species at high risk of global extinction. The general aim of the system is to provide an explicit, objective framework for the classification of the broadest range of species according to their extinction risk. However, while the Red List may focus attention on those taxa at the highest risk, it is not the sole means of setting priorities for conservation measures for their protection.

The IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria have several specific aims:

  • to provide a system that can be applied consistently by different people;
  • to improve objectivity by providing users with clear guidance on how to evaluate different factors which affect the risk of extinction;
  • to provide a system which will facilitate comparisons across widely different taxa;
  • to give people using threatened species lists a better understanding of how individual species were classified.

The current version of the Categories and Criteria (3.2) in 2001 following a meeting of Criteria Review Working Group, in February 2000. The criteria can be applied to any taxonomic unit at or below the species level. In the following information, definitions and criteria the term 'taxon' is used for convenience, and may represent species or lower taxonomic levels, including forms that are not yet formally described. The the process and categorization of taxa is illustrated in the following diagram:

For listing as Critically Endangered, Endangered or Vulnerable there is a range of quantitative criteria; meeting any one of these criteria qualifies a taxon for listing at that level of threat. Each taxon should be evaluated against all the criteria. Even though some criteria will be inappropriate for certain taxa (some taxa will never qualify under these however close to extinction they come), there should be criteria appropriate for assessing threat levels for any taxon. The relevant factor is whether any one criterion is met, not whether all are appropriate or all are met. Because it will never be clear in advance which criteria are appropriate for a particular taxon, each taxon should be evaluated against all the criteria, and all criteria met at the highest threat category must be listed.

According to the IUCN (World Conservation Union (IUCN)), a taxon is Endangered when the best available evidence indicates that it meets any of the following criteria (A to E), and it is therefore considered to be facing a very high risk of extinction in the wild:

Criteria

An illustration of the criteria of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (http://sci.odu.edu/gmsa/files/Poster%20IUCN-HRI%202014%20for%20Oil%20Spill%20conf.pdf)

A. Reduction in population size based on any of the following:

1. An observed, estimated, inferred or suspected population size reduction of70% over the last 10 years or three generations, whichever is the longer, where the causes of the reduction are clearly reversible AND understood AND ceased, based on (and specifying) any of the following:

(a) direct observation

(b) an index of abundance appropriate to the taxon

(c) a decline in area of occupancy, extent of occurrence and/or quality of habitat

(d) actual or potential levels of exploitation

(e) the effects of introduced taxa, hybridization, pathogens, pollutants, competitors or parasites.

2. An observed, estimated, inferred or suspected population size reduction of ? 50% over the last 10 years or three generations, whichever is the longer, where the reduction or its causes may not have ceased OR may not be understood OR may not be reversible, based on (and specifying) any of (a) to (e) under A1.

3. A population size reduction of ? 50%, projected or suspected to be met within the next 10 years or three generations, whichever is the longer (up to a maximum of 100 years), based on (and specifying) any of (b) to (e) under A1.

4. An observed, estimated, inferred, projected or suspected population size reduction of ? 50% over any 10 year or three generation period, whichever is longer (up to a maximum of 100 years in the future), where the time period must include both the past and the future, and where the reduction or its causes may not have ceased OR may not be understood OR may not be reversible, based on (and specifying) any of (a) to (e) under A1.

B. Geographic range in the form of either B1 (extent of occurrence) OR B2 (area of occupancy) OR both:

1. Extent of occurrence estimated to be less than 5,000 km2, and estimates indicating at least two of a-c:

(a) Severely fragmented or known to exist at no more than five locations.

(b) Continuing decline, observed, inferred or projected, in any of the following: (i) extent of occurrence, (ii) area of occupancy, (iii) area, extent and/or quality of habitat, (iv) number of locations or subpopulations, (v) number of mature individuals.

(c) Extreme fluctuations in any of the following: (i) extent of occurrence, (ii) area of occupancy, (iii) number of locations or subpopulations, (iv) number of mature individuals.

2. Area of occupancy estimated to be less than 500 km2, and estimates indicating at least two of a-c:

(a) Severely fragmented or known to exist at no more than five locations.

(b) Continuing decline, observed, inferred or projected, in any of the following: (i) extent of occurrence, (ii) area of occupancy, (iii) area, extent and/or quality of habitat, (iv) number of locations or subpopulations, (v) number of mature individuals.

(c) Extreme fluctuations in any of the following: (i) extent of occurrence, (ii) area of occupancy, (iii) number of locations or subpopulations. (iv) number of mature individuals.

C. Population size estimated to number fewer than 2,500 mature individuals and either:

1. An estimated continuing decline of at least 20% within five years or two generations, whichever is longer, (up to a maximum of 100 years in the future) OR

2. A continuing decline, observed, projected, or inferred, in numbers of mature individuals AND at least one of the following (a-b):

(a) Population structure in the form of one of the following: (i) no subpopulation estimated to contain more than 250 mature individuals, OR (ii) at least 95% of mature individuals in one subpopulation.

(b) Extreme fluctuations in number of mature individuals.

D. Population size estimated to number fewer than 250 mature individuals.

E. Quantitative analysis showing the probability of extinction in the wild is at least 20% within 20 years or five generations, whichever is the longer (up to a maximum of 100 years).

Further Reading

IUCN Categories and Criteria

Citation

Nature, T. (2014). IUCN Red List Criteria for Endangered. Retrieved from http://editors.eol.org/eoearth/wiki/IUCN_Red_List_Criteria_for_Endangered