Abstract
Global biodiversity decline is continuing largely unabated. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species (hereafter, Red List) provides us with the gold standard for assessments, but taxonomic coverage, especially for invertebrates and fungi, remains very low. Many players contribute to the Red List knowledge base, especially IUCN Red List partners, IUCN-led assessment projects, and the Specialist Groups and Red List Authorities (RLA) of the IUCN Species Survival Commission. However, it is vital that we develop the next generation of contributors and bring in new, diverse voices to build capacity and to sustain the huge assessment effort required to fill data gaps. Here, we discuss a recently established partner network to build additional capacity for species assessments, by linking academia directly into the assessment processes run by Specialist Groups and RLAs. We aim to increase Red List “literacy” amongst potential future conservationists and help students to increase publication output, form professional networks, and develop writing and research skills. Professors can build Red List learning into their teaching and offer Red Listing opportunities to students as assignments or research projects that directly contribute to the Red List. We discuss the opportunities presented by the approach, especially for underrepresented species groups, and the challenges that remain.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Article number | 723 |
| Journal | Diversity |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue number | 9 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Sep 2022 |
Funding
Funding to support the costs of open access was provided by the Department of Organismal and Environmental Biology, Christopher Newport University, as well as Kutztown University and the IUCN SSC Terrestrial and Freshwater Invertebrate Red List Authority (TIRLA). Our initial Red List student assessor training program was supported by the Kutztown University Foundation, grant number: 10144 and Kutztown Research Committee, grant number: 4512020220. For example, conservation efforts in Bolivia are hindered by poor access to funding, technology, permitting, specimens, and trained taxonomists. However, The Red Book of Bolivian Invertebrates [], a collaborative initiative with national and foreign specialists, represents a significant step forward. Its goal was to evaluate Bolivia’s invertebrates and was supported by the government and the Ministry of Environment and Water. It was developed by 26 biologists, many of whom were young Bolivians that gained an interest in insect conservation when they were students. The work involved analyzing, ordering, and updating the taxa according to their risk and degree of population decline following the Red List methodology []. It used the different scientific collections in the country, mainly the Entomology Collection of the Noel Kempff Mercado History Museum, the Bolivia Fauna Collection, and the Alcide d’Orbigny Natural History Museum. This initiative demonstrates the value of engaging young biologists who contributed their time and effort to the conservation of insects with more senior experts to develop a national Red List.
Keywords
- IUCN Red List
- Species Survival Commission
- academic learning
- capacity building
- extinction risk
- mentoring
- undergraduate research
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Ecology
- Ecological Modeling
- Agricultural and Biological Sciences (miscellaneous)
- Nature and Landscape Conservation
