Extinction threat despite conservation efforts

The number of plant and animal species threatened with extinction has risen in the last year.

The World Conservation Union, the IUCN, maintains a 'Red List' that currently contains 41,415 species that considered under threat.

Of those, 16,306 are thought to be under threat of extinction, nearly 200 more than last year.

That means one in four mammals, one in eight birds, one third of all amphibians and 70 per cent of the world's assessed plants on the Red List are in jeopardy.

IUCN Director General Julia Marton-Lef said:"This year's IUCN Red List shows that the invaluable efforts made so far to protect species are not enough.

"The rate of biodiversity loss is increasing and we need to act now to significantly reduce it and stave off this global extinction crisis."

She added: "This can be done, but only with a concerted effort by all levels of society."

The Red List measures the level of biodiversity for each species, the rate at which it is lost and the cause of decline.

Jane Smart, head of the Species Programme, said: "Our lives are inextricably linked with biodiversity and ultimately its protection is essential for our very survival."

A reassessment of great apes recently led the Western Gorilla to be moved from the Endangered class to Critically Endangered, after the discovery that the main subspecies, the Western Lowland Gorilla, has been decimated by the commercial bushmeat trade and the Ebola virus.

Their population has declined by more than 60 per cent over the last 20-25 years, with about one third of the total population found in protected areas killed by Ebola over the last 15 years.

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