scholarly journals Are conservation assessments of threatened species reliable? Updated distribution of the Endangered Sardinian newt Euproctus platycephalus and implications for Red List assessments of Italian amphibians

Oryx ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 482-488 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonardo Vignoli ◽  
Daniele Macale ◽  
Luca Luiselli ◽  
Roberta Lecis ◽  
Paolo Casula
Keyword(s):  
Extinction Risk ◽  
Demographic Data ◽  
Conservation Status ◽  
Red List ◽  
Individual Species ◽  
Distribution Data ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Amphibian Species ◽  
Island Endemic ◽  
Area Of Occupancy

AbstractAssessing and updating the extinction risk and conservation status of species and populations is paramount to guide management strategies. Maintaining up-to-date and realistic geographical distribution maps of individual species is one aspect of this. We report an updated distribution for an Italian island endemic amphibian, the Sardinian newt Euproctus platycephalus, categorized as Endangered on the IUCN global and national Red Lists. The distribution of E. platycephalus was reassessed by means of visual surveys, questionnaires, interviews and scientific literature. The species was found over a geographical range comparable to that used for the IUCN assessment but we recorded a significantly larger number of populations (57 vs 14). There was no appreciable difference in the species’ Extent of Occurrence between 1972–1974 and 2010–2015. Area of Occupancy increased between past (1972–1974 and 1999–2000) and present (2010–2015) distribution records. Based on this updated distribution and considering that several new populations have been found, the distribution of the species may still be underestimated. Given the novel distribution data provided here and the need for new long-term demographic data, we recommend that the conservation status of E. platycephalus be reassessed. In the Italian national Red List a potential overstatement of extinction risk is evident for other amphibian species, possibly because the information used in their assessment is deficient. Considering that monitoring rare and elusive species is costly and time consuming we recommend more extensive use of multiple sources of information for Red List assessments.

scholarly journals Increasing accuracy: The advantage of using open access species occurrence database in the Red List assessment

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Iyan Robiansyah ◽  
Wita Wardani
Keyword(s):  
Open Access ◽  
Extinction Risk ◽  
Conservation Status ◽  
Iucn Red List ◽  
Red List ◽  
Suitable Habitat ◽  
Herbarium Specimens ◽  
Species Occurrence ◽  
Extent Of Occurrence ◽  
Area Of Occupancy

Abstract. Robiansyah I, Wardani W. 2020. Increasing accuracy: The advantage of using open access species occurrence database in the Red List assessment. Biodiversitas 21: 3658-3664. IUCN Red List is the most widely used instrument to assess and advise the extinction risk of a species. One of the criteria used in IUCN Red List is geographical range of the species assessed (criterion B) in the form of extent of occurrence (EOO) and/or area of occupancy (AOO). While this criterion is presumed to be the easiest to be completed as it is based mainly on species occurrence data, there are some assessments that failed to maximize freely available databases. Here, we reassessed the conservation status of Cibotium arachnoideum, a tree fern distributed in Sumatra and Borneo. This species was previously assessed by Praptosuwiryo (2020, Biodiversitas 21 (4): 1379-1384) which classified the species as Endangered (EN) under criteria B2ab(i,ii,iii); C2a(ii). Using additional data from herbarium specimens recorded in the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) website and from peer-reviewed scientific papers, in the present paper we show that C. arachnoideum has a larger extent of occurrence (EOO) and area of occupancy (AOO), more locations and different conservation status compared to those in Praptosuwiryo (2020). Our results are supported by the predicted suitable habitat map of C. arachnoideum produced by MaxEnt modelling method. Based on our assessment, we propose the category of Vulnerable (VU) C2a(i) as the global conservation status for C. arachnoideum. Our study implies the advantage of using open access databases to increase the accuracy of extinction risk assessment under the IUCN Red List criteria in regions like Indonesia, where adequate taxonomical information is not always readily available.

scholarly journals Overview of the conservation status of Australian frogs

2006 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Marc Hero ◽  
Clare Morrison ◽  
Graeme Gillespie ◽  
J. Dale Roberts ◽  
David Newell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Conservation Status ◽  
Iucn Red List ◽  
Red List ◽  
Individual Species ◽  
Amphibian Species ◽  
Current Conservation ◽  
World Conservation ◽  
Iucn Red List Categories ◽  
Threatening Processes ◽  
Red List Categories

A review of the current conservation status of Australian amphibians was recently completed as part of a World Conservation Union (IUCN) sponsored Global Amphibian Assessment (GAA). Fifty of 216 amphibian species (23%) in Australia are now recognized as threatened or extinct in accord with IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria. Here we report on the categories and criteria under which individual species qualified for listing and provide a summary of supporting information pertaining to population and distribution declines. Major threatening processes contributing to listing of species are also reviewed.

scholarly journals Assessment of the rarity and conservation status of the Colombian endemic brown hairy dwarf porcupine Coendou vestitus

Oryx ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
María M. Torres-Martínez ◽  
Héctor E. Ramírez-Chaves ◽  
Elkin A. Noguera-Urbano ◽  
Fernando C. Passos
Keyword(s):  
Small Body ◽  
Conservation Status ◽  
Natural Habitat ◽  
Habitat Type ◽  
Iucn Red List ◽  
Red List ◽  
Small Range ◽  
Minimum Convex Polygon ◽  
Area Of Occupancy ◽  
Species Rarity

Abstract The brown hairy dwarf porcupine Coendou vestitus is a poorly studied Andean species endemic to Colombia. Its current Red List category is contradictory: globally it is categorized as Data Deficient but in Colombia it is categorized as Vulnerable. This contradiction has limited the implementation of conservation programmes. We evaluate the level of rarity of the species and provide consolidated information for a new assessment of its Red List status. We reviewed literature, photographs, and voucher specimens in natural history collections. Using the confirmed records, we estimated the extent of occurrence (EOO) based on the minimum convex polygon and the area of occupancy (AOO) summing the area of grid squares occupied by the species. We found that C. vestitus is very rare, with a small range, low estimated population density, occurrence in only one habitat type and small body size. The species has an EOO of 3,323 km2 and an AOO of 24 km2, based on six confirmed localities, all on the western slopes of the Eastern Cordillera, in the central Andean region of Colombia. Based on the species' rarity, restricted distribution, and threats to its natural habitat, we recommend its categorization as Endangered on the IUCN Red List. This will help delineate research and conservation efforts for this porcupine, which has a highly restricted range and inhabits the threatened Andean forest.

scholarly journals Conservation Status of Marine Biodiversity in Oceania: An Analysis of Marine Species on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beth A. Polidoro ◽  
Cristiane T. Elfes ◽  
Jonnell C. Sanciangco ◽  
Helen Pippard ◽  
Kent E. Carpenter
Keyword(s):  
Threatened Species ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Extinction Risk ◽  
Conservation Status ◽  
Marine Species ◽  
Iucn Red List ◽  
Red List ◽  
Marine Biodiversity ◽  
Conservation Priorities ◽  
Conservation Action

Given the economic and cultural dependence on the marine environment in Oceania and a rapidly expanding human population, many marine species populations are in decline and may be vulnerable to extinction from a number of local and regional threats. IUCN Red List assessments, a widely used system for quantifying threats to species and assessing species extinction risk, have been completed for 1190 marine species in Oceania to date, including all known species of corals, mangroves, seagrasses, sea snakes, marine mammals, sea birds, sea turtles, sharks, and rays present in Oceania, plus all species in five important perciform fish groups. Many of the species in these groups are threatened by the modification or destruction of coastal habitats, overfishing from direct or indirect exploitation, pollution, and other ecological or environmental changes associated with climate change. Spatial analyses of threatened species highlight priority areas for both site- and species-specific conservation action. Although increased knowledge and use of newly available IUCN Red List assessments for marine species can greatly improve conservation priorities for marine species in Oceania, many important fish groups are still in urgent need of assessment.

scholarly journals Addressing Uncertainties in Machine Learning Predictions of Conservation Status

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barnaby Walker ◽  
Tarciso Leão ◽  
Steven Bachman ◽  
Eve Lucas ◽  
Eimear Nic Lughadha
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Extinction Risk ◽  
Conservation Status ◽  
Red List ◽  
Learning Models ◽  
Species Occurrence ◽  
Voucher Specimens ◽  
Machine Learning Models ◽  
Occurrence Records

Extinction risk assessments are increasingly important to many stakeholders (Bennun et al. 2017) but there remain large gaps in our knowledge about the status of many species. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (IUCN 2019, hereafter Red List) is the most comprehensive assessment of extinction risk. However, it includes assessments of just 7% of all vascular plants, while 18% of all assessed animals lack sufficient data to assign a conservation status. The wide availability of species occurrence information through digitised natural history collections and aggregators such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), coupled with machine learning methods, provides an opportunity to fill these gaps in our knowledge. Machine learning approaches have already been proposed to guide conservation assessment efforts (Nic Lughadha et al. 2018), assign a conservation status to species with insufficient data for a full assessment (Bland et al. 2014), and predict the number of threatened species across the world (Pelletier et al. 2018). The wide range in sources of species occurrence records can lead to data quality issues, such as missing, imprecise, or mistaken information. These data quality issues may be compounded in databases that aggregate information from multiple sources: many such records derive from field observations (78% for plant species in GBIF; Meyer et al. 2016) largely unsupported by voucher specimens that would allow confirmation or correction of their identification. Even where voucher specimens do exist, different taxonomic or geographic information can be held for a single collection event represented by duplicate specimens deposited in different natural history collections. Tools are available to help clean species occurrence data, but these cannot deal with problems like specimen misidentification, which previous work (Nic Lughadha et al. 2019) has shown to have a large impact on preliminary assessments of conservation status. Machine learning models based on species occurrence records have been reported to predict with high accuracy the conservation status of species. However, given the black-box nature of some of the better machine learning models, it is unclear how well these accuracies apply beyond the data on which the models were trained. Practices for training machine learning models differ between studies, but more interrogation of these models is required if we are to know how much to trust their predictions. To address these problems, we compare predictions made by a machine learning model when trained on specimen occurrence records that have benefitted from minimal or more thorough cleaning, with those based on records from an expert-curated database. We then explore different techniques to interrogate machine learning models and quantify the uncertainty in their predictions.

scholarly journals The jaguar's spots are darker than they appear: assessing the global conservation status of the jaguar Panthera onca

Oryx ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 300-315 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Antonio de la Torre ◽  
José F. González-Maya ◽  
Heliot Zarza ◽  
Gerardo Ceballos ◽  
Rodrigo A. Medellín
Keyword(s):  
Human Population ◽  
Conservation Status ◽  
Conservation Policy ◽  
Iucn Red List ◽  
Red List ◽  
Panthera Onca ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Area Of Occupancy ◽  
Global Status ◽  
Iucn Red List Criteria

AbstractThe IUCN Red List is widely used to guide conservation policy and practice. However, in most cases the evaluation of a species using IUCN Red List criteria takes into account only the global status of the species. Although subpopulations may be assessed using the IUCN categories and criteria, this rarely occurs, either because it is difficult to identify subpopulations or because of the effort involved. Using the jaguar Panthera onca as a model we illustrate that wide-ranging species that are assigned a particular category of threat based on the IUCN Red List criteria may display considerable heterogeneity within individual taxa in terms of the level of risk they face. Using the information available on the conservation status of the species, we evaluated the jaguar's current geographical range and its subpopulations. We identified the most threatened subpopulations, using the extent of occurrence, area of occupancy, population size and the level of threat to each subpopulation. The main outcome of this analysis was that although a large subpopulation persists in Amazonia, virtually all others are threatened because of their small size, isolation, deficient protection and the high human population density. Based on this approach, future conservation efforts can be prioritized for the most threatened subpopulations. Based on our findings we recommend that for future Red List assessments assessors consider the value of undertaking assessments at the subpopulation level. For the jaguar, sub-global assessments should be included on the Red List as a matter of urgency.

scholarly journals Categorizing threatened species: an analysis of the Red List of the flora of Brazil

Oryx ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 258-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. A. Moraes ◽  
R.A.X. Borges ◽  
E. M. Martins ◽  
R. A. Fernandes ◽  
T. Messina ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Plant Species ◽  
Extinction Risk ◽  
Conservation Status ◽  
National Level ◽  
Individual Species ◽  
Species List ◽  
Regulatory Processes ◽  
Threatened Plant Species ◽  
Available Information

AbstractIn Brazil most of the effort for the conservation of plant species has comprised evaluation of taxa for the Lista Oficial das Espécies Ameaçadas de Extinção da Flora Brasileira (Official Threatened Flora Species List), and little has been done to conserve individual species. This is a result of the listing process being interpreted as the final goal rather than as a means to achieve conservation effectiveness. In addition, a variety of systems for the classification of extinction risk have been applied, resulting in an inaccurate view of the conservation status of the flora of the country. Here we review the national listing process to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the Official Threatened Flora Species List. We used all available information to compile a list of taxa officially recorded as threatened in Brazil. The list was revised using the Flora do Brasil database. The resulting list has 4,967 taxa in 1,235 genera and 232 families. Despite controversies about advances in the Red Listing process, several improvements have been made at the institutional level, such as: (1) improving conservation databases, (2) developing information systems, and (3) increasing the number of taxonomists working in conservation biology. However, there is still no classification system for extinction risk that facilitates standardization of the listing process at the national level. In addition, regulatory processes related to the conservation of threatened plant species are not up-to-date with the conceptual and methodological advances made by the scientific community. We conclude that adjustments are needed to ensure the effectiveness of the conservation of plant species in Brazil.

scholarly journals Distribution and status of the Critically Endangered blond titi monkey Callicebus barbarabrownae of north-east Brazil

Oryx ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 439-443 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodrigo C. Printes ◽  
Anthony B. Rylands ◽  
Júlio César Bicca-Marques
Keyword(s):  
Conservation Status ◽  
Iucn Red List ◽  
Red List ◽  
Critically Endangered ◽  
Forest Fragments ◽  
Vegetation Types ◽  
North East ◽  
Area Of Occupancy ◽  
Titi Monkey ◽  
Iucn Red List Assessment

AbstractThe blond titi monkey Callicebus barbarabrownae lives in forest fragments in the caatinga (tropical thorn scrub and forest) of north-east Brazil. In 2004–2005 we carried out five surveys to determine its current distribution and conservation status; surveying forest fragments, interviewing local people, and recording vegetation types and patterns of land use. The blond titi monkey occurs mainly in Dense Arboreal Caatinga and Highland Coastal Rainforest in the state of Bahia, at elevations of 241–908 m. Its range extends over 291,438 km2, with an area of occupancy of 2,636 km2. Estimated minimum population was 260 individuals. It was not recorded in any protected area. Cattle ranching favours the persistence of forest fragments for this species, whereas agriculture, subsistence or commercial, does not. Our findings supported the IUCN Red List assessment of Critically Endangered for this species.

scholarly journals The changing fates of the world's mammals

2011 ◽  
Vol 366 (1578) ◽  
pp. 2598-2610 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Hoffmann ◽  
Jerrold L. Belant ◽  
Janice S. Chanson ◽  
Neil A. Cox ◽  
John Lamoreux ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Captive Breeding ◽  
Extinction Risk ◽  
Conservation Status ◽  
Iucn Red List ◽  
Red List ◽  
Mammal Species ◽  
International Union ◽  
The Status ◽  
Conservation Actions ◽  
In The Wild

A recent complete assessment of the conservation status of 5487 mammal species demonstrated that at least one-fifth are at risk of extinction in the wild. We retrospectively identified genuine changes in extinction risk for mammals between 1996 and 2008 to calculate changes in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List Index (RLI). Species-level trends in the conservation status of mammalian diversity reveal that extinction risk in large-bodied species is increasing, and that the rate of deterioration has been most accelerated in the Indomalayan and Australasian realms. Expanding agriculture and hunting have been the main drivers of increased extinction risk in mammals. Site-based protection and management, legislation, and captive-breeding and reintroduction programmes have led to improvements in 24 species. We contextualize these changes, and explain why both deteriorations and improvements may be under-reported. Although this study highlights where conservation actions are leading to improvements, it fails to account for instances where conservation has prevented further deteriorations in the status of the world's mammals. The continued utility of the RLI is dependent on sustained investment to ensure repeated assessments of mammals over time and to facilitate future calculations of the RLI and measurement against global targets.

scholarly journals Conservation status of Mascarene Amaranth Aerva congesta Balf.F. Ex Baker (Eudicots: Caryophyllales: Amaranthaceae): a Critically Endangered endemic herb of the Mascarenes, Indian Ocean

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 12056
Author(s):  
Kersley Bruno Pynee ◽  
David Harold Lorence ◽  
Poojanraj Khurun
Keyword(s):  
Conservation Status ◽  
Iucn Red List ◽  
Small Population ◽  
Red List ◽  
Critically Endangered ◽  
Native Vegetation ◽  
Ecological Studies ◽  
Area Of Occupancy ◽  
Mascarene Islands ◽  
Iucn Red List Criteria

Aerva congesta Balf.f. ex Baker (Amaranthaceae), an endemic of Mascarene Islands (Mauritius and Rodrigues) is assessed for its conservation status. Considering its local extinction in Rodrigues and very small population in Mauritius, in Round Island and at Gris Gris, south of Mauritius its area of occupancy (AOO) is estimated at 8km².  Due to its small AOO and threats by increasing native vegetation and alien species, A. congesta is evaluated as Critically Endangered following the latest IUCN Red List criteria.  The species needs an urgent well-defined restoration program and ecological studies to prevent its extinction.  

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