1. International Conservation Efforts
Richard Knight

2. IUCN Red data SPECIES List

3. Threatened Categories Collapse CO Critically Endangered Endangered CR
Vulnerable
Near Threatened
Least Concern
Data Deficient
Not Evaluated CO CR EN
Threatened VU NT LC DD NE

4. Red Lists and Red Data Books of Threatened Species
IUCN maintains threatened species lists since 1950s.
“Red Data Books” popularized in 1960s: birds & mammals.
“Information explosion” in 1990s:
Europe: 3,562 known red lists.
South Africa – maintained by SANBI
100 countries have produced RL for at least one taxon (
Species assigned to categories on the basis of quantitative criteria and thresholds.
Separation of risk assessment (scientific) from definition of conservation priorities (societal process).

5. Quantitative criteria: Categories for IUCN red lists
Population decline
Critically
endangered
Small range: fragmented
/ decline / fluctuation
Thresholds
Endangered
Reproductive population
small and declining
Very small or
restricted population
Vulnerable
Quantitative assessment

6. Conservation Priorities
Extinction Risk
Distributional Factors
Weighting system
Biological Factors
Conservation priorities
Societal Values
Logistical Factors
Economic Factors
Analysis, studies, choices, politics, land use etc
Other Factors
(legal, institutional, etc.)

7. Motivation for a “Red List” categories system for ecosystems
Abundant experience with red list categories for species. Red list “explosion” world-wide (> 100 countries have applied them).
Increased capability of geographical information systems:
more powerful and inexpensive computers.
cheaper and more user-friendly software packages (Quantum and DIVA GIS– free and WebGIS).
Increased availability of remotely-sensed data, covering years.

8. Why focus on ecosystem status?
May more effectively represent biodiversity as a whole than individual species.
Ecosystem loss more apparent than species loss: clean water, food, fuel – service losses
More time-efficient than species-by-species assessments (<3% species evaluated by IUCN).
Ecosystem loss and degradation might precede species declines (e.g. extinction debt).
Combined with species Red List, more powerful assessment of biodiversity status.

9. Official listing of threatened ecosystems is already taking place
Gov. of W. Australia: quantitative categories & criteria for threatened ecosystems, also Victoria.
S. African National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act: identification of over 200 threatened ecosystems. (Critical Biodiversity Areas and Ecosystem Support Areas
Austria, Germany, Finland, Norway & partially in other EU states (based on NATURA 2000, EUNIS). Venezuela, Senegal (draft); and
Colombia, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru in process
EC tender for Red List of Habitats for Europe process

10. Consolidation of the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems:
Mandates from the IUCN World Conservation Congresses (Barcelona 2008, Jeju 2012)
Consolidation of the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems:
Formal adoption of RLE categories and criteria.
Formal allocation of funds/staff.
Global assessment of ecosystems.
Provision of support to national assessments.
View RLS and RLE as an integrated tool (also with other IUCN key Knowledge Products).

11. Major scientific challenges
What is an ecosystem?
When is an ecosystem “extinct”?
Disappearance, transformation or collapse?
How to assess ecosystem change?
distribution
function

12. I. Defining ecosystems
No global classification (but maybe getting nearer), ecosystems may be defined at various scales (raindrop to biosphere) ~WWF EcoRegions, GLC2000
Approach:
Adopt widey accepted conceptual definition (Tansley 1935, Odum)
Develop a risk assessment method applicable to any classification (national, regional)
Promote development of a global ecosystem classification
Require documented ecosystem descriptions as part of each risk assessment

13. Describing ecosystems for assessment
Description template (operational)
Classification (IUCN habitats, etc)
List defining biotic features
Identify defining abiotic features
Describe key ecosystem drivers
Maps (time series, projections)
past, present, future
Conceptual definition
(4 key elements, Tansley 1935)
characteristic assemblage of biota
associated physical environment
processes & interactions between components
among biota
between biota & environment
Spatial extent

14. Defining ecosystems: Operational basis
Specific set of ecosystems that can be nested (local, national, global) use of different schemes – c.f. NatureServe (Classification & Description of World Formation Types); EUNIS
Nesting into administrative & other means of dividing – e.g. overall major ecosystem types in a country, or a district, or land/water use
Trade-offs between conceptual definitions & practical reality!
We respect & will use national ecosystem classifications, but will seek to nest them

15. Data integration, nesting & access

16. Data integration, nesting & access
NatureServe

17. Coming to Global consensus on Ecosystems – but not there yet!

18. II. The concept of ‘risk’
RISK – the probability of a bad outcome over a specified time frame
Define the bad outcome
An endpoint to ecosystem decline
Ecosystems rarely disappear or go “extinct” (cf. species) Exception Maldives
“Collapse”: transformation of identity, loss of defining features (characteristic biota & function), replacement by a novel ecosystem (e.g. invasives, agriculture, plantation)

19. II. The concept of risk
RISK – the probability of a bad outcome over a specified time frame
Specify the time frame for assessing change
long enough to detect trends,
short enough to inform action,
long enough to consider lags & debts
past, present, future

20. III. Assessing ecosystem change
Guiding principles for design of a protocol
Evidence-based risk assessment using all available data & information
Transparent derivation from relevant ecological theories
Generic concepts and methods adaptable across a range of organisational & spatial scales and all ecological domains
terrestrial, freshwater, marine, subterranean
Logically consistent with IUCN Red List criteria for species

21. III. Assessing Ecosystem Change
Threatening processes
Risk of loss
of characteristic
native biota
A Declining
distribution
C Environmt’l
degradation
D Altered biotic
processes
Ecosystem distribution
Ecosystem function
B Small
E Quantitative
risk analysis
Risk model for ecosystems:
threats to defining features (distribution, biota & function)
multiple mechanisms (causes of threat)
4 symptoms (of decline) = 4 criteria
plus one overarching criterion (probability of collapse)

22. WORLD Database Protected areas