Operationalizing the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems in public policy

Abstract

Threats to ecosystems are closely linked to human development, whereas lack, insufficiency, and inefficiency of public policies are important drivers of environmental decline. Previous studies have discussed the contribution of IUCN's Red List of Ecosystems (RLE) in conservation issues; however, its applications in different policy fields and instruments for achieving biodiversity conservation have not been explored in detail. Here, we introduce a framework to operationalize the RLE in public policy, facilitating work of governments, practitioners, and decision makers. Our analysis identified 20 policy instruments that could reduce risks to ecosystems highlighted by different Red List criteria. We discuss how RLE could inform the policy process by analyzing different instruments that could be designed, implemented, and modified to achieve risk reduction. We also present practical examples from around the world showing how ecosystem conservation could be improved by operationalizing the RLE in policy instruments. The RLE criteria can inform the policy process by helping to shape objectives and identifying policy instruments that directly address the causes and severity of risks illuminated in Red List assessments. We conclude that RLE could be expanded into a broader holistic spectrum of policy instruments, which could be a key to achieving the ecosystem conservation.

Angry Birds – The Use of International Union for the Conservation of Nature Categories as Biodiversity Disclosures in Extinction Accounting

“…elephants and rhinoceros) and their exposure to risk of extinction, which has led to large multinationals contributing financially to conservation programmes and disclosing non-financial information about preservation efforts in corporate reports (Atkins 2017). According to Alaniz et al (2019) to date most efforts have been at the levels of species and populations, where a great deal of progress has been made using tools such as the Red List of Threatened Species and their implementation through guidelines and regulations to record the status quo to document the current biodiversity crisis. However, Bland et al (2019), as well as Alaniz et al (2019), uttered critique that the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems had less impact in comparison to the Red List of Threatened Species.…”

Punto de encuentro: restaurar la salud de las tierras para una agricultura sostenible

“…Otros enfoques que podrían sustentar el desarrollo de métricas relevantes incluyen la estrategia "Half-Earth" (Media Tierra) adoptada por el Informe EAT-Lancet (Willett et al, 2019), según la cual el 50% de todas las ecorregiones del mundo deberían gestionarse de manera a apoyar la conservación de la biodiversidad para 2050. Las métricas también podrían aprovechar herramientas establecidas como la Lista Roja de Ecosistemas de la UICN (Alaniz et al, 2019, Bland et al, 2019 Los seguros basados en índices pueden proporcionar una opción de seguro de menor costo para los pequeños agricultores.…”

Myanmar's terrestrial ecosystems: Status, threats and conservation opportunities

“…The criteria require systematic analyses of change in area, range size, environmental degradation and biotic disruption over several time frames to estimate the status of each ecosystem (Rodríguez et al 2015). National Red lists of ecosystem assessments are becoming a widely applied tool for informing environmental planning and management and for designing national protected area networks around the world (Keith et al 2015;Alaniz et al 2019;Bland et al 2019).…”