WORLD -- Fishing, logging, mining, agriculture and other activities to satisfy our growing appetite for resources are threatening the survival of numerous species, while the destruction of habitat has caused the extinction of a Malaysian mollusc and the world’s largest known earwig. The Red List of Threatened Species™ was released on Monday at the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) World Parks Congress taking place in Sydney, Australia. The IUCN Red List, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, now includes 76,199 assessed species, of which 22,413 are threatened with extinction. As nearly half of the newly assessed species occur within protected areas, IUCN calls for better management of these places to stop further biodiversity decline.
“Each update of the IUCN Red List makes us realize that our planet is constantly losing its incredible diversity of life, largely due to our destructive actions to satisfy our growing appetite for resources,” says IUCN Director General Julia Marton-Lefèvre. “But we have scientific evidence that protected areas can play a central role in reversing this trend. Experts warn that threatened species poorly represented in protected areas are declining twice as fast as those which are well represented. Our responsibility is to increase the number of protected areas and ensure that they are effectively managed so that they can contribute to saving our planet’s biodiversity.” (Photos below)
