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Eighteen - Assessing Species Conservation Status: The IUCN Red List and Green Status of Species

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 April 2023

By
Molly Grace
Edited by
Norman Maclean
Norman Maclean
Affiliation:
University of Southampton
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Summary

The conservation status of the taxa in this book is measured using the criteria of the Red List of Threatened Species™. The Red List is overseen by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and categorises species according to extinction risk. This chapter summarises the history of the Red List and explains the criteria used to assess species’ extinction risk, as well as the quality control procedures in place today. This chapter also introduces a new part of the Red List, formalised in 2021: The Green Status of Species, a set of metrics which assess species’ progress towards functional recovery across its range and the impact of conservation actions.

Keywords

Industrial revolutionInvasive speciesAgricultureMiningPollutionDeforestationEcosystem
Type
Chapter
Information
The Living Planet
The State of the World's Wildlife
 , pp. 333 - 348
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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