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In the five years since publication of the 1995-99 action plan, the Megapode Specialist Group has been active in promoting, initiating and executing conservation and research projects on thermometer birds. But the conservation outlook for many species remains bleak.

Bryophytes are of great importance in their ecosystems and for human well-being.

Grouse have long attracted and fascinated people. Their display behaviour, and their traditional communal mating grounds or "leks", have inspired poetry and folklore as well as scientific theories on sexual selection and mating systems.

One threat to parrot arises from their attractiveness as "talking" companions to humans, leading to a high demand for trade that involves hundreds of thousands of birds annually on a global basis, and gives parrots a high monetary value.

The African elephant is the largest living land mammal. It once inhabited most of the continent, from the Mediterranean coast down to its south tip. This picture of elephant range today is one of scattered, fragmented populations south of the Sahara Desert.

Although most antelope species still exist in large numbers in sub-Saharan Africa (some in hundreds of thousands), up to three-quarters of the species are in decline.

The eight species of bear live in more than 65 countries or autonomous regions in four continents, in a variety of habitats from tropical rainforests to arctic ice. Numerous human cultures around the world symbolically or physically try to incorporate the power of bears into their people.

Deer are a unique group of mammals recognised for their grace and beauty. Some are also prime examples of flagship species, whose continued survival sustains the complex interplay of flora and fauna. Today many species are under threat of extinction.

Sharks and their relatives, the rays and chimaeras, are the diverse group of cartilaginous fishes that have evolved over 400 million years.

This reflects the ongoing activities of the Crocodile Specialist Group, providing the first application of the new 1994 IUCN Red List Categories to crocodilian status assessment.

Grebes are specisalised waterbirds which inhabit marshlands and reed-fringed lakes. Their dependence on wetlands is total and as a result they are particularly vulnerable to changes in ecosystems and their deterioration.

Over the last 30 years the African wild dog population has declined dramatically. Dogs have disappeared from 25 of the 39 countries in which they were previously found, and only 6 populations are believed to number more than 100 animals.

Found in a variety of forms and sometimes with very attractive flowers, cacti and other succulents have elicited widespread interest and tremendous popularity worldwide.

Wild caprinae, including sheep and goats, are an extremely valuable group of mammals. While most live in mountains, some inhabit desert grasslands, tropical forests or even arctic tundra.

The "1994 Red List of Threatened Animals" was a major advance on its predecessors in clarity of layout and amount of information presented. This is taken further in the 1996 edition, which is also the first global compilation to use the complete new IUCN red list category system.

With almost 5000 island and islets, the Mediterranean comprises one of the largest groups of islands in the world. With its wealth of species, high degree of endemism, long history and tolerance of all kinds of disruptions, it is of extremely high value to global biodiversity.

This action plan chronicles the threats faced by wild orchids, but more importantly to critical habitats that host extraordinarily high orchid diversity and endemicity.