Nine categories, thirteen partners and a Green Status: how the IUCN Red List is put together

Background

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is the most comprehensive source of information on the global extinction risk of animal, fungus and plant species, and it is open to everyone - governments, non-profit bodies, businesses and individuals all use it. Each assessed species goes into one of nine Red List Categories. They run from Extinct and Extinct in the Wild through Critically Endangered, Endangered and Vulnerable, on to Near Threatened and Least Concern, with Data Deficient and Not Evaluated for species that cannot be placed. Three of those - Vulnerable, Endangered and Critically Endangered - are taken to mean threatened with extinction. An assessment records a species' range, population size, habitat and ecology, use and trade, the threats it faces and the conservation work already done. Out of the Red List comes the Red List Index, which shows the trend in overall extinction risk and which governments use to track progress against targets for reducing biodiversity loss. The work is carried out with 13 Red List Partner organisations. The Red List also holds the IUCN Green Status of Species, which measures recovery rather than risk and has eight Green Status Categories of its own, among them Extinct in the Wild and Fully Recovered. IUCN itself is the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, with headquarters at Gland in Switzerland.