Red List of endangered species - wildlife disappearing as never before*

By Paul Eccleston
Last Updated: 1:01pm BST 12/09/2007

Life on earth is disappearing with species hurtling towards extinction
at an unprecedented rate.

One in four mammals, one in eight birds, one third of all amphibians and
70 per cent of the world's assessed plants now appear on the Red List of
endangered plants and animals.

According to the World Conservation Union, (IUCN) which draws up the
annual List, the extinction rate is up to 10,000 higher than expected.

Human activity causing loss of habitat through urbanisation, agriculture
and deforestation combined with climate change is revealed to be the
biggest threat to plants and animals.

There are now 41,415 species on the Red List and 16,306 are threatened
with extinction, up from 16,118 last year. The total number of extinct
species has reached 785 and a further 65 are only found in captivity or
in cultivation.

The Red List is recognised as the most reliable evaluation of the
world's species which it classifies according to their extinction risk.
Its publication is the latest wake-up call to the pressures facing the
earth's fragile ecosystems and its consequences for mankind.

The one small success story on the 2007 Red List is the Mauritius Echo
Parakeet (Psittacula eques), which 15 years ago was one of the world's
rarest parrots. Following successful conservation efforts it has been
moved from Critically Endangered to merely Endangered.

Julia Marton-Lefèvre, Director General of the IUCN said: "This year's
IUCN Red List shows that the invaluable efforts made so far to protect
species are not enough.
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"The rate of biodiversity loss is increasing and we need to act now to
significantly reduce it and stave off this global extinction crisis.
This can be done, but only with a concerted effort by all levels of
society."

Jane Smart, Head of IUCN's Species Programme, said: "We need to know the
precise status of species in order to take the appropriate action. The
Red List does this by measuring the overall status of biodiversity, the
rate at which it is being lost and the causes of decline.

"Our lives are inextricably linked with biodiversity and ultimately its
protection is essential for our very survival. As the world begins to
respond to the current crisis of biodiversity loss, the information from
the Red List is needed to design and implement effective conservation
strategies - for the benefit of people and nature."

Dr Mark Wright, chief scientist at WWF-UK, said: "We're at code red. The
plight of the world's species is a mirror on the state of the planet.
Species are under enormous pressure as we systematically destroy their
habitat or over-exploit them for our increasingly demanding lifestyles.

We urgently need to reverse this trend and start living within the
planet's natural resources - not just for the well-being of threatened
species but also for our own."

Three of the new species added to this year's list are corals in the
Galapagos Islands which are said to be critically endangered by the
warm-water Pacific Ocean pattern El Nino and by climate change.

Craig Hilton-Tailor, the list's manager, said climate change was one
factor threatening plant and animal life but not the only one. "It's
really hard to identify whether it's climate change or not that's
driving some of these species to extinction," he said.

"Climate change doesn't operate by itself, it's operating in tandem with
other threats and it's usually the combination of climate change and
possibly the threat of a new disease... it's different combinations that
can push species over the brink."

"If everybody on the planet cooperated and adopted a sustainable way of
living, a lot of these problems would go away," he said.