IUCN adds 1840 new species to the Red List of Threatened Species

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) added about 1,840 new species to its updated “Red List of Threatened Species”, a catalog of plants and animals that risk extinction. The list now contains over 30,000 species under threat of disappearing. The group released its Red List update in the middle of COP25 climate talks in Madrid, Spain. The year 2020 will see two global IUCN gatherings, first in June in Marseille, France and another in Kunming, China, in October.

Key Findings of the IUCN List

IUCN finds that hundreds of plant and animal species who already face the threat of habitat destruction are now under further pressure from manmade climate change.

IUCN had earlier witnessed a genuine decline in 73 species since its last assessment. This new update reveals the ever-increasing impacts of human activities on wildlife. Moreover, Climate change is adding to multiple threats species face, and there is a to act urgently and decisively to curb the crisis.

More than 1 million species are now at risk of vanishing as insatiable human demand puts them in danger of overexploitation, habitat loss, pollution, and climate change.

Fish: Rising temperatures have already contributed to the declines of several freshwater fish and sharks. The latest update showed that 37% of Australia’s freshwater fish species were threatened with extinction. Stocks of Short-tail nurse shark have declined around 80% in the last 30 years, as its shallow water habitat is being degraded because of ocean warming.

Bird: Dozens of species of birds and plants are now also threatened by rising temperatures. However, IUCN also highlighted a small handful of conservation successes, including the recovery of Guam Rail, a bird previously listed as extinct in wild.

About the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)

It is an international organization that works in the field of conservation of nature and sustainable use of natural resources. This membership Union is composed of both government and civil society organizations. It has more than 1,300 Member organizations and over 15,000 experts, this diversity and vast expertise makes IUCN the global authority on the status of the natural world and measures needed to safeguard it. IUCN is best known for its compiling and publishing of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, which assesses the conservation status of species worldwide.