NAGOYA – About a fifth of the world’s vertebrates are threatened with extinction, a major review has found, highlighting the plight of nature that is the focus of global environment talks under way in Japan.
The study by more than 170 scientists across the globe used data for 25,000 species from the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s red list of threatened species and examined the status of the world’s mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fishes.
The authors found, on average, 50 species of mammals, birds and amphibians move closer to extinction each year because of expansion of farms and plantations, logging and over-hunting. Another factor was competition from other species, particularly those introduced from other areas.
But the study, published in the journal Science, also found that conservation efforts had curbed the overall rate of loss.
It highlighted 64 mammal, bird and amphibian species that have improved in status, including three species that were extinct in the wild and have been reintroduced: the California condor, the black-footed ferret in the US and Przewalski’s horse in Mongolia.
Delegates from nearly 200 countries are holding two weeks of talks in the Japanese city Nagoya to set new 2020 targets to protect plant and animal species, draft a protocol to share genetic resources between countries and companies and allocate more funding to protect nature.
The UN says Nagoya needs to agree tougher targets to save forests, reefs, rivers and wetlands that underpin livelihoods and economies. Preserving the richness of species is vital to ecosystems and the services they provide, such as clean water, fisheries and pollination of crops. – (Reuters)