What is the IUCN Red List?

Maybe you've noticed that Nausicaá's animal identity cards mention the animal's IUCN status?

The IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) is a non-governmental organisation founded in 1948 that draws together 1,400 member organisations and the skills of more than 15,000 experts. It is active in over 160 countries.

The IUCN's objective is "to influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve the integrity and diversity of nature and to ensure that any use of natural resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable."

The IUCN Red List is a global inventory of the conservation status of animal and plant species.

The IUCN Red List, which is compiled by the experts of the Species Survival Commission on the basis of rigorous scientific criteria, is a reference tool that indicates the level of threat to species.

Each species can be classified into one of these 9 categories:

• Extinct (EX),
• Extinct in the Wild (EW),
• Critically Endangered (CR),
• Endangered (EN),
• Vulnerable (VU),
• Near Threatened (NT),
• Least Concern (LC),
• Data Deficient (DD),
• Not Evaluated (NE).

The latest edition of the global Red List (version 2022.2) lists 150,388 species (120,372 in 2020), of which 42,108 (32,441 in 2020) are classified as threatened.

Of these species, 41% of amphibians, 13% of birds and 27% of mammals are threatened with extinction worldwide. This also applies to 37% of sharks and rays (30% in 2020), 36% of reef-building corals (33% in 2020) and 34% of conifers.