Nederlandse Commissie voor Internationale Natuurbescherming Mededelingen

Red Lists are valuable for informing species protection policy and are important as indicators as well as a tool for communication between all those involved in species protection. There are some 3,700 Red Lists in use across Europe, but the approach, aims and criteria used vary widely. A partial result of this is that Red List Species are rarely used for European ecological networks and play a modest role in the updating of the Wild Birds and Habitats directives.

Little attention is given to the state of nature and natural resources in situations of armed conflict. Because of the human disaster involved, three is often a reluctance to focus on the environmental consequences. Nevertheless, there is no reason to assume that nothing can de done to conserve natural resources and biodiversity.