Using the IUCN Red List to determine effective conservation strategies

Abstract

Threatened species lists continue to grow while the world's governments fail to meet biodiversity conservation goals. Clearly, we are failing in our attempts to conserve biodiversity. Yet 37 mammal species genuinely improved in status in the 2009 IUCN Red List, suggesting there are ways to successfully conserve biodiversity. Here, I compare the threats and conservation actions (proposed and implemented) by the expert assessors of the Red List of improving species to a further 144 declining mammal species to determine whether specific threats were more easily remedied, and whether certain conservation actions were more successful than others. Declining species were faced with different threatening processes to mammals improving in status suggesting some threats were easier to treat (e.g. hunting) than others (climate change, invasive species). Declining species had different proposed and implemented conservation actions than improving species suggesting some actions are more successful than others. Threatened species were invariably found in conservation areas, suggesting protected area creation alone is not an overly successful strategy for species at risk of extinction. Conservation actions were more frequently implemented for improving than declining species suggesting active conservation is effective in improving the status of biodiversity. There were significant differences between proposed and implemented conservation actions suggesting some actions are easier to implement than others. Reintroduction, captive breeding and hunting restriction were more effective in conserving mammals than site creation and invasive species 123Biodivers Conserv (2011) 20:2563-2573 DOI 10.1007 control. These findings highlight effective conservation actions for mammals worldwide and allow the rationalisation of threat mitigation measures to ensure economically justifiable biodiversity conservation strategies.

Wildlife crime: a conceptual integration, literature review, and methodological critique

“…Indeed, 92% of these threatened species were living within PAs. Comparatively, PA creation was only half as successful as species reintroduction, captive breeding, and hunting restrictions for improving threatened animal populations (Hayward 2011). These results indicate that while PAs can potentially be an effective tool for conservation, other interventions that employ different SCP-related mechanisms such as increasing the risk associated with illegal hunting on non-protected land with fines for overhunting may be equally, or more, effective techniques for improving threatened species populations.…”

Biodiversity: The ravages of guns, nets and bulldozers

“…Thankfully, there are effective tools and approaches to alleviate harm caused by overexploitation and agricultural activities 8 . These include the development and governance of sustainable harvest regimes; the enforcement of hunting regulations and no-take marine protected areas; the maintenance of international policy mechanisms; such as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species; and public education (for instance, on where ivory comes from) to reduce demand.…”

Which intrinsic traits predict vulnerability to extinction depends on the actual threatening processes

“…Worryingly, we detect an increase in the prevalence of invasive species as mammalian threats, which affected 309 mammals in a previous assessment (Schipper et al 2008) but now affects 461 species. Invasive species are a common threat among species with deteriorating status (Hoffmann et al 2011) and may be a difficult to prevent or treat driver of extinction (Hayward 2011), raising concerns over the detected increase in prevalence. This change is not simply due to an increase in the number of assessed species (from 5487 to 5491) but whether it indicates greater awareness regarding invasive species or a true increase in risk remains to be determined.…”