A sustainable future

The Hindu 

Opinion page/ Editorial

The most comprehensive study yet of the status of mammals on land and in marine environments, published recently in Science, has revealed that 1,141 species, representing one in four, are threatened with extinction worldwide. Data for many others are deficient, but they are also at considerable risk. The Western Ghats in India with their high species endemism constitute a hotspot; in Southeast Asia, primates are extremely threatened; globally, animals ra nging from shrews to elephants and whales are distressed. This is unambiguous evidence emerging from the five-year study led by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, better known as the IUCN. The organisation has the monumental task of helping governments take the right steps to avert more extinction (76 mammal species have gone extinct since 1500). The IUCN resolved at the World Conservation Congress in Barcelona recently that it would work with governments, civil society, and the private sector towards a sustainable future. The major tool it has crafted for biodiversity protection is the Red List, which flags individual species as vulnerable, critically endangered and so on. Yet, the effects of key factors — habitat fragmentation and loss, hunting, and climate change — on listed species are growing more serious.  more