Nature’s “Red List”: Komodo sharks and dragons, threatened or endangered

Published on : 09/04/2021 – 15:26

The world’s largest environmental organization is once again sounding the alarm bells. Almost 30% of the species studied in the “Red List” of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) are “threatened”, according to the update of this real barometer of living published, Saturday, September 4, in Marseille on the occasion of the organization’s world congress.

In total, the IUCN has studied 138,374 species, of which 38,543 (some 28%) are classified in the various categories “threatened”, while specialists warn of an ongoing collapse of biodiversity, some evoking a “sixth extinction massive”.

Among the emblematic species, the Komodo dragons, the largest lizard in the world, have seen their status go from “vulnerable”, the lowest of the threatened categories, to “endangered”.

The IUCN warns in particular that due to climate change, “rising temperatures and therefore sea levels are expected to reduce their habitat by at least 30% in the next 45 years”. What about individuals living outside the natural park? which covers part of the islands in Indonesia where they are present, also see their habitat threatened by human activity.

Sharks and rays victims of overfishing

Other victims of men, sharks and rays (which are part of the same family), of which an overall reassessment of the situation has shown that 37% are now in the threatened categories, against 24% in 2014. All the species thus classified are faced with overfishing, 31% to degradation or loss of habitat and 10% to the consequences of climate change, according to the IUCN.

Conversely, IUCN is pleased to see “four species of commercially fished tuna recovering thanks to the implementation of regional quotas,” developed by specific organizations. Out of the seven most fished species, these four have thus seen their ranking down in the list. But the organization warns “that despite an overall improvement, many regional tuna stocks remain depleted.”

With AFP