The percentage of species in several groups which are listed as      critically endangered,      endangered, or      vulnerable on the 2007 IUCN Red List.

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data List), founded in 1963, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biological species. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is the world's main authority on the conservation status of species. A series of Regional Red Lists are produced by countries or organizations, which assess the risk of extinction to species within a political management unit.

The IUCN Red List is set upon precise criteria to evaluate the extinction risk of thousands of species and subspecies. These criteria are relevant to all species and all regions of the world. The aim is to convey the urgency of conservation issues to the public and policy makers, as well as help the international community to try to reduce species extinction.

Major species assessors include BirdLife International, the Institute of Zoology (the research division of the Zoological Society of London), the World Conservation Monitoring Centre, and many Specialist Groups within the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC). Collectively, assessments by these organizations and groups account for nearly half the species on the Red List.

The IUCN aims to have the category of every species re-evaluated every five years if possible, or at least every ten years. This is done in a peer reviewed manner through IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) Specialist Groups, which are Red List Authorities responsible for a species, group of species or specific geographic area, or in the case of BirdLife International, an entire class (Aves).^[1]

1997 Red List of Threatened Plants[link]

The 1997 IUCN Red List of Threatened Plants used the older pre-criteria Red List assessment system. Plants listed may not, therefore, appear in the current Red List. IUCN advise that is best to check both the online Red List and the 1997 plants Red List publication.^[2]

2006 release[link]

The 2006 Red List, released on 4 May 2006 evaluated 40,168 species as a whole, plus an additional 2,160 subspecies, varieties, aquatic stocks, and subpopulations.

From the species evaluated as a whole, 16,118 were considered threatened. Of these, 7,725 were animals, 8,390 were plants, and three were lichen and mushrooms.

This release listed 784 species extinctions recorded since 1500 CE, unchanged from the 2004 release. This was an increase of 18 from the 766 listed as of 2000.^{[citation needed]} Each year a small number of "extinct" species may be rediscovered, becoming Lazarus species, or may be reclassified as "data deficient". In 2002, the extinction list dropped to 759 species, but has been rising ever since.^[3]

2007 release[link]

On 12 September 2007, the World Conservation Union (IUCN) released the 2007 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In this release, they have raised their classification of both the Western Lowland Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) and the Cross River Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla diehli) from Endangered to Critically Endangered, which is the last category before Extinct in the Wild, due to Ebola virus and poaching, along with other factors. Russ Mittermeier, chief of Swiss-based IUCN's Primate Specialist Group, stated that 16,306 species are endangered with extinction, 188 more than in 2006 (total of 41,415 species on the Red List). The Red List includes the Sumatran Orangutan (Pongo abelii) in the Critically Endangered category and the Bornean Orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) in the Endangered category.^[4]

2008 release[link]

The 2008 Red List was released on 6 October 2008, at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Barcelona, and "has confirmed an extinction crisis, with almost one in four [mammals] at risk of disappearing forever". The study shows at least 1,141 of the 5,487 mammals on Earth are known to be threatened with extinction, and 836 are listed as Data Deficient.^[5]

Categories[link]

Summary of 2006 IUCN Red List categories.

Species are classified in nine groups, set through criteria such as rate of decline, population size, area of geographic distribution, and degree of population and distribution fragmentation.

• Extinct (EX) – No individuals remaining.
• Extinct in the Wild (EW) – Known only to survive in captivity, or as a naturalized population outside its historic range.
• Critically Endangered (CR) – Extremely high risk of extinction in the wild.
• Endangered (EN) – High risk of extinction in the wild.
• Vulnerable (VU) – High risk of endangerment in the wild.
• Near Threatened (NT) – Likely to become endangered in the near future.
• Least Concern (LC) – Lowest risk. Does not qualify for a more at risk category. Widespread and abundant taxa are included in this category.
• Data Deficient (DD) – Not enough data to make an assessment of its risk of extinction.
• Not Evaluated (NE) – Has not yet been evaluated against the criteria.^[6]

When discussing the IUCN Red List, the official term "threatened" is a grouping of three categories: Critically Endangered, Endangered, and Vulnerable.

1994 categories and criteria[link]

1994 IUCN Red List categories (version 2.3), used for species which have not been reassessed since 2001.

The older 1994 has only a single "Lower Risk" category which contained three subcategories:

• Conservation Dependent (LR/cd)
• Near Threatened (LR/nt)
• Least Concern (LR/lc)

In the 2001 system, Near Threatened and Least Concern have now become their own categories, while Conservation Dependent is no longer used and has been merged into Near Threatened.

Possibly Extinct[link]

The tag of Possibly Extinct (PE)^[7] is used by Birdlife International, the Red List Authority for birds for the IUCN Red List.^[8] BirdLife International has recommended PE become an official tag for Critically Endangered species, and this has now been adopted, along with a "Possibly Extinct in the Wild" tag for species with populations surviving in captivity but likely to be extinct in the wild (e.g. Spix's Macaw).

Criticism[link]

The IUCN Red List has come under criticism on the grounds of secrecy (or at least poor documentation) surrounding the sources of data.^[9]

These allegations have led to efforts by the IUCN to improve its documentation and data quality, and to include peer reviews of taxa on the Red List. The list is also open to petitions against its classifications, on the basis of documentation or criteria.^[10] A Nature editorial defended the Red List's relevance in October 2008.^[11]

It has been suggested that the IUCN Red List and similar works are prone to misuse by governments and other groups that draw possibly inappropriate conclusions on the state of the environment or to effect exploitation of natural resources.^[12]

See also[link]

• CITES
• Conservation status
• EDGE of Existence Programme
• EDGE Species
• Red Data Book of the Russian Federation
• Red List Index
• Regional Red List
• Species by IUCN Red List category
• Wildlife conservation

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Hilton-Taylor, C. A history of the IUCN DATA Book and Redlist[1].Retrieved 2012-5-11.
• IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, 2009. Summary Statistics. Retrieved 2009-12-19.
• IUCN. 1994 IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria version 2.3. Retrieved 2009-12-19.
• IUCN. 2001 IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria version 3.1. Retrieved 2009-12-19.
• Rodrigues, A.S.L., Pilgrim, J.D., Lamoreux, J.F., Hoffmann, M. & Brooks, T.M. 2006. The value of the IUCN Red List for conservation Trends in Ecology & Evolution 21(2): 71–76.
• Sharrock, S. and Jones, M. 2009. Conserving Europe's threatened plants – Report on the lack of a European Red List and the creation of a consolidated list of the threatened plants of Europe. Retrieved 2011-03-23.

External links[link]

• IUCN Red List
• The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) study

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (March 2008)

Janez Potočnik
European Commissioner for the Environment
Incumbent
Assumed office 9 February 2010
President	José Manuel Barroso
Preceded by	Stavros Dimas
European Commissioner for Science and Research
In office 22 November 2004 – 9 February 2010
President	José Manuel Barroso
Preceded by	Louis Michel (Research)
Succeeded by	Máire Geoghegan-Quinn (Research, Innovation and Science)
European Commissioner for Enlargement
In office 1 May 2004 – 21 November 2004 Serving with Günter Verheugen
President	Romano Prodi
Preceded by	Günter Verheugen
Succeeded by	Olli Rehn
Personal details
Born	(1958-03-22) 22 March 1958 (age 54) Kropa, Yugoslavia (now Slovenia)
Political party	Liberal Democracy
Alma mater	University of Ljubljana
Profession	Economist

Janez Potočnik (pronounced [ˈjaːnɛs poˈtɔtʃnɪk]; born 22 March 1958) is a Slovenian politician, currently serving as European Commissioner for Environment. He was formerly the Slovenia's Minister for European Affairs.

On 27 November 2009 he was nominated to serve as European Commissioner for the Environment in the next Barroso commission, subject to approval by the European Parliament.

He served as Assistant Director (1984–1987) and Director (1993–2001) at the Institute of Macroeconomic Analysis and Development in Ljubljana. In 1993, he got his PhD in Economics at the University of Ljubljana. Between 1988 and 1993, he was Senior Researcher at the Institute for Economic Research in Ljubljana. He was Minister Councillor at the Slovenian Prime Minister's Cabinet 2001–2002 and Minister for European Affairs 2002–2004. He headed the negotiating team for the Accession of Slovenia to the EU between 1998 and 2004. That year he became European Commissioner, since November responsible for Science and Research.

While commissioner, Potočnik stated that he believes trading knowledge and the development of an information society to create prosperity is as important to Europe as trading steel and coal to create peace was 50 years ago. He aims to develop the European Research Area.^[1]

See also[link]

• EU Directorate General Research
• EU Directorate General Joint Research Centre

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Media Gallery
• Official website
• Janez Potočnik's blog

v t e Barroso Commission I (2004–2009) Joaquín Almunia · Catherine Ashton6 · José Manuel Barroso1 · Jacques Barrot2 · Joe Borg · Karel De Gucht9 · Stavros Dimas · Benita Ferrero-Waldner · Ján Figeľ10 · Franco Frattini2, 5 · Mariann Fischer Boel · Dalia Grybauskaitė7 · Danuta Hübner8 · Siim Kallas2 · László Kovács · Neelie Kroes · Meglena Kuneva3 · Markos Kyprianou4 · Peter Mandelson6 · Charlie McCreevy · Louis Michel9 · Leonard Orban3 · Andris Piebalgs · Janez Potočnik · Viviane Reding · Olli Rehn · Paweł Samecki8 · Maroš Šefčovič10 · Algirdas Šemeta7 · Vladimír Špidla · Antonio Tajani2, 5 · Androulla Vassiliou4 · Günter Verheugen2 · Margot Wallström2 1 = President. 2 = Vice President. 3 = Served from 1 January 2007. 4 = Vassiliou replaced Kyprianou on 3 March 2008. 5 = Tajani replaced Frattini on 18 June 2008. 6 = Ashton replaced Mandelson on 3 October 2008. 7 = Šemeta replaced Grybauskaitė on 1 July 2009. 8 = Samecki replaced Hübner on 4 July 2009. 9 = De Gucht replaced Michel on 17 July 2009. 10 = Šefčovič replaced Figeľ on 1 October 2009.

v t e Barroso Commission II (since 2010) Joaquín Almunia2 · László Andor · Catherine Ashton2 · Michel Barnier · José Manuel Barroso1 · Dacian Cioloş · John Dalli · Maria Damanaki · Štefan Füle · Máire Geoghegan-Quinn · Kristalina Georgieva · Karel De Gucht · Johannes Hahn · Connie Hedegaard · Siim Kallas2 · Neelie Kroes2 · Janusz Lewandowski · Cecilia Malmström · Günther Oettinger · Andris Piebalgs · Janez Potočnik · Viviane Reding2 · Olli Rehn · Antonio Tajani2 · Androulla Vassiliou · Maroš Šefčovič2 · Algirdas Šemeta 1 = President. 2 = Vice President.