IUCN released Red List of Threatened Species for Year 2012

International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) on 19 June 2012 released its latest update of the Red List of Threatened Species. The report showed that of the 63837 species assessed, 19817 are threatened with extinction, including 41 per cent of amphibians, 33 per cent of reef building corals, 25 per cent of mammals, 13 per cent of birds, and 30 per cent of conifers.

From India the IUCN listed 132 species of plants and animals as Critically Endangered, the most threatened category. With as many as 60 different species assessed as Critically Endangered and 141 species as Endangered, plants appeared to be the most threatened life form.

18 species of amphibians, 14 fishes, 10 mammals and 15 varitites of birds were assessed as critically endangered While, 310 species were included in the list of Endangered species. The list of endangered species includes 69 fishes, 38 mammals and 32 amphibians. Two plant species namely Euphorbia mayuranthanii of Kerala were listed in the extinct in the wild category, while a leaf frog species and six plants were reported to be extinct.

On a global basis the IUCN classified 3947 as Critically Endangered, 81 as Extinct, 63 as Extinct in the Wild. In the lower risk categories, there were 5766 species in Endangered, 10104 in Vulnerable and 4467 in Near Threatened categories. Scientific data regarding 10497 species was not available and hence classified as Data Deficient.

What is International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)?

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is the world’s oldest and largest global environmental organization. Founded in 1948, today it is the largest professional global conservation network of the world. As of now the organization has more than 1200 member organizations including 200+ government and 900+ non-government organizations. The IUCN Red List is a critical indicator of the health of the world’s biodiversity. Headquartered in Gland near Geneva in Switzerland, IUCN's vision is "a just world that values and conserves nature."

What is IUCN Red List?

Founded in 1969, IUCN Red List is the most comprehensive, objective global approach for evaluating the conservation status of plant and animal species. The goal of the IUCN Red List is to provide information and analyses on the status, trends and threats to species in order to inform and catalyse action for biodiversity conservation.