MARSEILLE, France–Trapped on island habitats made smaller by rising
seas, Indonesia's Komodo dragons were listed as "endangered" on
Saturday, in an update of the wildlife Red List that also warned overfishing
threatens nearly two-in-five sharks with extinction.
اضافة اعلان
About 28 percent of the 138,000 species assessed by the
International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) for its survival
watchlist are now at risk of vanishing in the wild forever, as the destructive
impact of human activity on the natural world deepens.
But the latest update of the Red List for Threatened
Species also highlights the potential for restoration, with four commercially
fished tuna species pulling back from a slide towards
extinction after a decade
of efforts to curb overexploitation.
The most spectacular recovery was seen in the Atlantic
bluefin tuna, which leapt from "endangered" across three categories
to the safe zone of "least concern".
The most spectacular recovery was seen in the Atlantic
bluefin tuna, which leapt from "endangered" across three categories
to the safe zone of "least concern".
"These Red List assessments demonstrate just how
closely our lives and livelihoods are intertwined with biodiversity," IUCN
Director General Bruno Oberle said in a statement.
A key message from the IUCN Congress, taking place in the
French city of Marseille, is that disappearing species and the destruction of
ecosystems are no less existential threats than global warming.
At the same time, climate change itself is casting a darker
shadow than ever before on the futures of many species, particularly endemic
animals and plants that live uniquely on small islands or in certain
biodiversity hotspots.
Komodo dragons — the world's largest living lizards — are
found only in the World Heritage-listed Komodo National Park and neighbouring
Flores.
The
species "is increasingly threatened by the impacts
of climate change" said the IUCN. Rising sea levels are expected to shrink
its tiny habitat at least 30 percent over the next 45 years.
Outside of protected areas, the fearsome throwbacks
are also rapidly losing ground as humanity's footprint expands.
"The idea that these prehistoric animals have moved
one step closer to extinction due in part to climate change is
terrifying," said Andrew Terry, Conservation Director at the Zoological
Society of London.
Their decline is a "clarion call for nature to be
placed at the heart of all decision making" at crunch UN climate talks in
Glasgow, he added.
The most comprehensive survey of sharks and stingrays ever
undertaken, meanwhile, revealed that 37 percent of 1,200 species evaluated are
now classified as directly threatened with extinction, falling into one of
three categories: "vulnerable," "endangered," or
"critically endangered".
That's a third more species at risk than only seven years
ago, said Simon Fraser University Professor Nicholas Dulvy, lead author of a
study published on Monday underpinning the Red List assessment.
"The conservation status of the group as a whole
continues to deteriorate, and overall risk of extinction is rising at an
alarming rate," he told AFP.
Five species of sawfish — whose serated snouts get tangled
in cast off fishing gear — and the iconic shortfin mako shark are among those
most threatened.
Chondrichthyan fish, a group made up mainly of sharks and
rays, "are important to ecosystems, economies and cultures," Sonja
Fordham, president of Shark Advocates International and co-author of the
upcoming study, told AFP.
"By not sufficiently limiting catch, we're
jeopardising ocean health and squandering opportunities for sustainable
fishing, tourism, traditions and food security in the long term."
The Food and Agriculture Organization reports some 800,000
tonnes of sharks caught — intentionally or opportunistically — each year, but
research suggests the true figure is two to four times greater.
The IUCN on Saturday also officially launched its
"green status" — the first global standard for assessing species
recovery and measuring conservation impacts.
"It makes the invisible work of conservation
visible," Molly Grace, a professor at the University of Oxford and Green
Status co-chair, said at a press conference on Saturday.
The new yardstick measures the extent to which species are
depleted or recovered compared to their historical population levels, and
assesses the effectiveness of past and potential future conservation
actions.
Efforts to halt extensive declines in numbers and diversity
of animals and plants have largely failed.
In 2019 the UN's biodiversity experts warned that a million
species are on the brink of extinction — raising the spectre that the planet is
on the verge of its sixth mass extinction event in 500 million years.
"The Red List status shows that we're on the cusp of the sixth
extinction event," the IUCN's Head of Red List Unit Craig Hilton-Taylor
told AFP.
"If the trends carry on going upward at that rate,
we'll be facing a major crisis soon."
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