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IUCN
Red Data List inspires national, regional authorities
IUCN
- The World Conservation Union - Regional Office for Southern Africa
(ROSA)
May 04, 2003
by Caroline
Gwature
In 1994, IUCN
-The World Conservation Union adopted new quantitative criteria
for the classification of threatened animals and plants in the IUCN
Red Lists. These criteria were recently reviewed and some modifications
introduced. The criteria which may be applied to taxonomic units
at the species level and below is designed to reflect relative extinction
risk, based on information about population size, geographical distribution,
known threats, and trends in these measures. The IUCN Red Data List
Criteria have inspired several national and regional authorities
to develop a similar listing system for their areas. In Lesotho
the IUCN system for Red Data List (RDL) categories and Criteria
was used in the compilation of the RDL for the country.
Botswana is
currently compiling a national checklist, which includes distributes
of the species in the country.
In Malawi, the
Government, recognising the importance of biological diversity in
the socio-economic development of the country, has put in place
various policies, legislation, strategies and programmes to curtail
the destruction of biological resources. This merits the monitoring
of threatened taxa to prevent local, regional and international
extinctions.
This listing
has acted as a complimentary to the global listing system and has
led to realistic assessments of extinction risk at the regional
or national level.
IUCN has supported
and encouraged regional listings as such lists are often linked
to actions at national levels and also provide the global listing
and action processes with valuable information.
To date several
Red Lists and Red Data books are among the most widely used tools
available to conservationists worldwide for focusing attention on
species of conservation concern.
Visit the IUCN
fact sheet
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
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