As part of a comprehensive strategy to highlight and help prioritize urgently needed conservation action for the most critically endangered turtles and tortoises in the world, the Turtle Conservation Coalition have highlighted the Top 25 most endangered species every four years since 2003. In this third installment, more than 25 species are covered and the information presented was provided by the coalition rather than solely by one or two organizations. In general, this document includes all terrestrial and freshwater turtles and tortoises currently ranked as Extinct in the Wild or Critically Endangered on the current 2010 IUCN Red List, or provisionally so, based on recent draft assessments by the TFTSG (Turtle Taxonomy Working Group 2010) carried out in a series of turtle-focused IUCN Red Listing workshops held around the world. In addition, included on this list are a few species at lesser Red List categories that are also considered to be at a high risk of extinction.
Includes bibliographic references.