In five years, the list of endangered species of animals and plants has doubled

The list of endangered species of animals and plants in 2011 included 19.6 thousand species, up 10% from two years ago and almost twice as much as five years ago, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) reported

“4% of all species described by science are on the list. Despite environmental conservation programs, 25% of mammals remain at risk of extinction. The process of assigning species to different categories of the list highlights our knowledge of some species in critical situations, and the first step is understanding that one of the biggest problems we will face in the 21st century will be the extinction of species,” – the message states.

In total, scientists examined 62,000 species in 2011. Thus, almost a third of them were endangered.

“It is especially sad that many species will die out before they are discovered at all, since the red list only covers a small fraction of the approximately 10 million species that scientists believe are found on Earth,” the expert Stefan Ziegler said in a comment to Biodiversity of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) of Germany.

The International Red Book was first published in 1963, and since 1988 the so-called Red List, which is not similar to, but close to, a book has been published.

Each species in the list is assigned one of six categories – “disturbing”, “close to critical condition”, “vulnerable”, “endangered”, “critical”, “endangered”, “disappeared”.

In particular, IUCN experts assigned the category “extinct” to the West African subspecies of black rhinos (Diceros bicornis longipes) in 2011.

The Javanese rhino is also on the brink of extinction, the only small population of this species of rhinoceros left in Java, and the last representative of the population in Vietnam was killed by poachers in 2010.

However, the IUCN noted progress in restoring the southern white rhino, which increased from hundreds in the late 19th century to 20,000 in the 21st century.

In addition, Przewalski’s horses, which in 1996 were considered extinct in the wild, were able to return to her thanks to measures to restore a population of more than 300 individuals. Thus, the species returned from the category of “endangered” to the list of “recovering”.

The black rhino company is estimated by experts to be five of the eight tuna fish species now in the “endangered” or “near-critical” categories.

“This information will assist the authorities in making decisions about the conservation of these fish in the future, many of which are industrial and important to the economy,” the report said.

In addition, one of the yew species, Taxus contorta, was added to the category “endangered”. A rare tree grows in the Himalayas and is used for the manufacture of medicines, goes for the procurement of firewood and forage.

The owner of the largest seed in the plant world – the Seychelles palm (Lodoicea maldivica), has almost disappeared. Poachers destroy the palm tree because of its aphrodisiac properties (substances that increase sex drive – ed.), As well as fruits of strange shape.