Name: Red List Assessment (as a status review tool)
Reference: IUCN (2010). IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2010.1. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 9 March 2011
IUCN. (2012). Guidelines for Application of IUCN Red List Criteria at Regional Levels: Version 4.0. IUCN Species Survival Commission. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK. ii + 26 pp. (http://www.iucnredlist.org/documents/reg_guidelines_en.pdf)
IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria Version 3.1 (IUCN 2001) http://jr.iucnredlist.org/documents/redlist_cats_crit_en.pdf
Source: See references above
Conservation planning step(s) when this would be used: This tool would be used at the Review Status step of a species conservation planning exercise.
Description of tool use: In this context the Red List Assessment tool would be used as a framework for compiling published and unpublished information on species distributions, threats, habitats, populations, and trends, to determine the species' conservation status as per the IUCN Criteria (though this would not necessarily be formalized through the Red List Office).
Experience and expertise required to use the tool: An understanding of how the Red List criteria should be applied is essential, and some experience in applying those criteria within a workshop situation is advisable. Online training is available.
Data requirements: Effective application of this tool benefits from a large quantity of high quality data on species biology, abundance, distribution, population growth rates and so on.
Cost (excluding expertise): FREE
Strengths and weaknesses, when to use and interpret with caution: Red List assessment is a robust and organized method to collect and interpret data. Weakness: people can be desperate to attribute a high status to the species of concern and believe that something is wrong if the species is not listed as endangered. It is very important that facilitators understand the application and rules of the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria.
Case study: During the Jaguar National Action Planning Workshop, a red listing exercise was performed with workshop participants and discussed in plenary sessions. Results from this work are presented in Jaguar in Brazil Cat News Special Issue No. 7 Spring 2012. All the rules and definitions in the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria Version 3.1 (IUCN 2001) were applied to jaguar populations in each Brazilian biome where they occur. Given that individuals can move between biomes, methods for adjusting the results were applied using the IUCN Red List Regional Guidelines (IUCN 2003).
There are important reasons to assess the risk of species extinction at the biome level. Using ecological borders rather than geo-political is often more efficient in terms of conducting explicit practical conservation assessments. In the case of jaguars, the biome-based assessment clearly illustrated how populations in different biomes were under different threats and at varying levels of extinction risk. Results from this exercise were important in assessing populations within each biome and in pinpointing areas where information was lacking.
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Contributor(s): Arnaud Desbiez
Affiliation: CBSG Brasil
Email: adesbiez@hotmail.com
Date: 8 February 2012