Red List assessments

The Mediterranean Red List assessment is a review of the conservation status at regional level of approximately 6,000 species of animals and plants. This report summarizes the results for a key group of Mediterranean biodiversity: saproxylic beetles. Despite their key role in the ecosystem´s health and food chain, saproxylic beetles are still largely misunderstood and the current information gaps on these species´ population status, trends, and distribution are a reflection on how little we still know about them.

Saproxylic beetles are insects that depend on dead and decaying wood for at least part of their lifecycle, and play important ecological roles in European habitats. The current IUCN European Red List provides an assessment for 693 species of saproxylic beetles. In 2008, following a two-year project, a total of 436 species were assessed. In 2017, an additional 257 species were assessed.

In recent years, awareness has risen surrounding the crucial role of plants in providing ecosystem services and on their decline – they are one of the essential foundations of healthy ecosystems that we depend on. However, significant gaps in knowledge still remain. In this context, the European Red List of lycopods and ferns provides the first ever comprehensive assessment of the extinction risk of all native lycopod and fern species to Europe.

This report provides an overview of the conservation status of chondrichthyans (sharks, rays, and chimaeras) in the Arabian Seas Region (ASR) and describes the results of a regional Red List workshop held in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, in February 2017. It identifies those species that are threatened with extinction at the regional level, so that appropriate conservation action can be taken to improve their status. A regional overview of chondrichthyan fisheries, management and conservation is also presented.

A workshop was held in Cambridge between March 20-22, 2017, to bring together the PiN team and the Global Species Programme (GSP) and TRAFFIC to discuss the inclusion of data from PiN landscape assessments within the Species Information Services (SIS), building on discussions held over the last four years. The objective of the meeting was to collectively agree on the content and architecture of a PiN benefits assessment within SIS and explore how to apply this assessment from an institutional perspective. 

In recent years, awareness has risen surrounding the crucial role of insects in providing ecosystem services and on the acute decline of many of them. However, significant gaps in knowledge still remain. In this context, the European Commission has undertaken to fund the European Red List of Grasshoppers, Crickets and Bush- Crickets, which provides the first ever comprehensive assessment of the extinction risk of all Orthoptera species native to Europe.

In 2007 the Shark Specialist Group convened an expert workshop with the aim of using the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria to assess the conservation status of pelagic sharks and rays. This report provides a detailed summary of the IUCN Red List assessment for these species, highlighting species of conservation concern as well as identifying species assessed as Least Concern and Data Deficient. This report is intended to inform the development of research, conservation and management priorities for this group of species.