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201302Jul20:06

World’s old­est and largest species in decline: newest IUCN Red List

Infor­ma­tion
pub­lished 02 July 2013 | mod­i­fied 30 May 2014
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White lipped peccaryThe lat­est update of The IUCN Red List of Threat­ened Species™ shows wor­ry­ing declines for conifers — the world’s old­est and largest organ­isms — fresh­wa­ter shrimps, cone snails and the Yangtze Fin­less Por­poise. The Santa Cruz Pup­fish, a lizard known as the Cape Verde Giant Skink and a species of fresh­wa­ter shrimp have been declared Extinct.

With this update, 4,807 species have been added to The IUCN Red List bring­ing the total of assessed species to 70,294, of which 20,934 are threat­ened with extinction.

Thanks to the IUCN Red List, we now have more infor­ma­tion on the state of the world’s bio­di­ver­sity than ever before. But the over­all pic­ture is alarm­ing. We must use this knowl­edge to its fullest — mak­ing our con­ser­va­tion efforts well tar­geted and effi­cient — if we are seri­ous about stop­ping the extinc­tion cri­sis that con­tin­ues to threaten all life on Earth.
Jane Smart, Global Direc­tor, IUCN Bio­di­ver­sity Con­ser­va­tion Group »

The update includes the first global reassess­ment of conifers. Accord­ing to the results, 34% of the world’s cedars, cypresses, firs and other cone-​bearing plants are now threat­ened with extinc­tion — an increase by 4% since the last com­plete assess­ment in 1998.

The con­ser­va­tion sta­tus of 33 conifer species has declined, includ­ing California’s Mon­terey Pine (Pinus radi­ata) — the world’s most widely planted pine val­ued for its rapid growth and pulp qual­i­ties. The tree has moved from Least Con­cern — a cat­e­gory used for species at rel­a­tively low extinc­tion risk — to Endan­gered, with main threats includ­ing feral goats and attacks by an inva­sive pathogen. Another conifer species pre­vi­ously clas­si­fied as Least Con­cern, the Atlas Cedar (Cedrus atlantica) — native to the Atlas Moun­tains of Alge­ria and Morocco — is now Endan­gered due to over-​exploitation. Its reduced pop­u­la­tion is threat­ened by var­i­ous pests.

On the other hand, con­ser­va­tion action has led to improved sta­tus for the Lawson’s Cypress (Chamae­cy­paris law­so­ni­ana). Once a heavily-​traded species, the tree is now listed as Near Threat­ened thanks to improved man­age­ment prac­tices in Cal­i­for­nia and Ore­gon, includ­ing plant­ing dis­ease resis­tant stock. If con­ser­va­tion actions con­tinue, this conifer may be listed as Least Con­cern within 10 years.

“Con­ser­va­tion works and the results for the Lawson’s Cypress are reas­sur­ing,” says Aljos Far­jon, Chair of the IUCN SSC Conifer Spe­cial­ist Group. “How­ever, this is clearly not enough. More research into the sta­tus and dis­tri­b­u­tion of many species is urgently needed. We sus­pect that there are many new species wait­ing to be described but it is likely that they will never be found due to the rate of defor­esta­tion and habi­tat con­ver­sion for oil palm plantations.”

Conifers are the old­est and largest species on the planet. The Bristle­cone Pine (Pinus lon­gaeva) for exam­ple, can live to an age of nearly 5,000 years and the Coast Red­wood (Sequoia sem­per­virens) grows to a height of 110 meters. Apart from wet­lands, conif­er­ous forests sequester more car­bon than any other biome — three times the amount sequestered by tem­per­ate and trop­i­cal forests. Their eco­nomic value is immense: soft­woods are used for tim­ber and paper pro­duc­tion and the anti-​cancer agent Taxol® is derived from the bark of many of the Yew species.

This update of The IUCN Red List pro­vides results of the first-​ever global assess­ment of fresh­wa­ter shrimps, of which 28% are threat­ened with extinc­tion. Ten per­cent are used for human con­sump­tion, includ­ing the Giant River Prawn (Mac­ro­brachium rosen­bergii), and they are an impor­tant part of the fresh­wa­ter food web. Pol­lu­tion, mod­i­fi­ca­tion of habi­tat and the aquar­ium trade are some of the pri­mary threats they face.

Cone snails, found in trop­i­cal marine envi­ron­ments, have also been assessed for the first time, with 8% threat­ened with extinc­tion. As preda­tors, they are an impor­tant ele­ment in marine ecosys­tems and are highly val­ued for their lethal tox­ins which are used in the devel­op­ment of new drugs to treat intractable pain. These ani­mals also have beau­ti­ful shells which have been col­lected for cen­turies, with some rare species chang­ing hands for thou­sands of dol­lars. Habi­tat loss and pol­lu­tion rep­re­sent the great­est threats to these species.

“This assess­ment is a mile­stone due to an inno­v­a­tive coop­er­a­tion between the shell-​traders and sci­en­tific experts,” says Howard Peters of Uni­ver­sity of York, mem­ber of the IUCN SSC Mol­lusc Spe­cial­ist Group. “Their joint work has pro­vided new insights into the dis­tri­b­u­tion, trade and threats fac­ing each species. This is key to our future con­ser­va­tion efforts.”

Also assessed is the Yangtze Fin­less Por­poise (Neopho­caena asi­ae­ori­en­talis asi­ae­ori­en­talis), a sub­species of the Narrow-​ridged Fin­less Por­poise (Neopho­caena asi­ae­ori­en­talis) and one of the world’s few remain­ing fresh­wa­ter cetaceans. It is found in China’s Yangtze river and two adjoin­ing lakes, Poyang and Dongt­ing. Its pop­u­la­tion, esti­mated at about 1,800 in 2006, has been declin­ing by more than 5% annu­ally since the 1980s and it has been assessed as Crit­i­cally Endan­gered. Increas­ing threats to these por­poises include ille­gal fish­ing, intense ves­sel traf­fic, sand min­ing and pollution.

The White-​lipped Pec­cary (Tayassu pecari) — a mem­ber of the pig fam­ily found in Cen­tral and South Amer­ica — has declined by 89% in Costa Rica and 84% in Mex­ico and Guatemala and is now listed as Vul­ner­a­ble. Hunt­ing and habi­tat loss explain some of the decline but many cases of mys­te­ri­ous dis­ap­pear­ance of the species have been doc­u­mented in sev­eral regions with dis­ease sus­pected to be the pri­mary cause.

Three species have been declared Extinct. Last seen in 1912, the Cape Verde Giant Skink (Chion­inia coctei) — a lizard that was restricted to a sin­gle island and two smaller islets — was dri­ven to extinc­tion by intro­duced rats and cats. The Santa Cruz Pup­fish (Cyprin­odon arcu­a­tus) — once found in the Santa Cruz River basin in Ari­zona — is now Extinct due to water deple­tion, and the Fresh­wa­ter Shrimp (Mac­ro­brachium lep­to­dacty­lus)was a vic­tim of habi­tat degra­da­tion and urban development.

“Once again, an update of the IUCN Red List pro­vides us with some dis­turb­ing news,” says Simon Stu­art, Chair of IUCN’s Species Sur­vival Com­mis­sion. “How­ever, there are instances of suc­cesses. For exam­ple, increased sur­vey efforts in Costa Rica have uncov­ered new sub­pop­u­la­tions of Costa Rica Brook Frog (Duell­manohyla ura­nochroa) and Green-​eyed Frog (Litho­bates vibi­car­ius). Sadly, much more needs to be done as the over­all trend to extinc­tion con­tin­ues in many species.”

Global fig­ures for the 2013.1 IUCN Red List of Threat­ened Species:
TOTAL SPECIES ASSESSED = 70,294
(Total threat­ened species = 20,934)

Extinct = 799
Extinct in the Wild =61
Crit­i­cally Endan­gered = 4,227
Endan­gered = 6,243
Vul­ner­a­ble = 10,464
Near Threat­ened = 4,742
Lower Risk/​conservation depen­dent = 241 (this is an old cat­e­gory that is grad­u­ally being phased out of the Red List)
Least Con­cern = 31,846
Data Defi­cient = 11,671

(Source: IUCN news release, 02.07.2013)

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