International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
IUCN was founded in 1948 as a global conservation network.
IUCN has more than 1200 member organizations including 200+ government and 900+ Non-government organizations.
Functions of IUCN
Science – the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
Action – hundreds of conservation projects all over the world.
Influence – through the collective strength of more than 1,200 government and non-governmental Member organizations.
IUCN Threatened Species Classification (Red Data Book)
There are total 9 categories under which species (both Flora and Fauna) are classified:
Extinct (EX): beyond reasonable doubt that the species is no longer extant.
Extinct in the Wild (EW): survives only in captivity, cultivation and/or outside native range, as presumed after exhaustive surveys.
Critically Endangered (CR): in a particularly and extremely critical state.
Endangered (EN): very high risk of extinction in the wild, meets any of criteria A to E for Endangered.
Vulnerable (VU): meets one of the 5 red list criteria and thus considered to be at high risk of unnatural (human-caused) extinction without further human intervention.
Near Threatened (NT): close to being at high risk of extinction in the near future.
Least Concern (LC): unlikely to become extinct in the near future.
