What is the “IUCN Red List” and why does it matter?

WHAT IS IUCN RED LIST?
⚠️ International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) “Red List of Threatened Species”, established 1964.
👀 Most comprehensive and authoritative info source about global extinction risk of animal, plant, and fungus species. For this reason, it is often called the “Barometer of Life”.
🐾 Has guided global biodiversity conservation policy and action for 50 years.

WHAT DOES IT SAY?
🔻Biodiversity is declining.
✍️ Lists 147,500+ species, of which 41,000+ (28%) are threatened with extinction, including: 41% of amphibians, 38% of sharks and rays, 34% of conifers, 33% of reef corals, 27% of mammals, 21% of reptiles, and 13% of birds.
❗️These fall within 3 threatened categories: Vulnerable (VU); Endangered (EN); and Critically Endangered (CR).

WHY SHOULD YOU CARE?
😱 The Biodiversity Crisis – aka “Extinction Crisis” or “6th Mass Extinction” – is here. It is bad for the Planet and People because it has disastrous effects on ecosystems that sustain human and non-human life.
🥺 Many species have gone extinct since 1500, human destruction of nature has been accelerating, and the extinction rate is going up. 1/3 of the total increase in species extinction risk has occurred since 1994.
😰 Over coming decades, scientists predict 1 million species face extinction!

IS THERE HOPE?
🛑 We can act to stop mass extinction, by mitigating its human-caused drivers like direct exploitation, habitat destruction, climate change, and invasive species.
🙏 From action comes hope, not the other way around!

WHAT ACTION CAN YOU TAKE?
🎬 Needed action is individual and collective.
🧍 Key individual actions are speaking up for wildlife and wild places, and changing lifestyles, like nature-connected living, 7Rs of waste management, and Buy Less, Buy Better.
👫 Key collective actions include the “Protecting Our Planet Challenge”, a $5B commitment by 9 charities – like our official partner Rainforest Trust – to conserve 30% of the Planet by 2030.

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More blog posts you might like: 

8 Ways to Reconnect Your Human-Nature

7 Rs of Waste Management 

Alliance for Zero Extinction