The GSA is the most comprehensive evaluation ever undertaken of the status of the world's biodiversity. Its findings include the following:

• At least 15 species have gone extinct in the past 20 years, and an additional 12 species survive only in captivity. However, the real extinction figure is believed to be much higher, due to the conservative approach used in such listings;

• A total of 15,589 species (7,266 animal species and 8,323 plant and lichen species) are now considered at risk of extinction. This represents an increase of 3,330 since the previous year's Red List, due to a combination of first-ever species evaluations as well as reassessments;

• One in three amphibians (32%) and almost half (42%) of turtles and tortoises are now known to be threatened with extinction, along with one in eight birds (12%) and one in four mammals (23%);

• There are major gaps in our knowledge of threatened species, and many species-rich groups have been poorly assessed: among plants, for example, only the conifers and cycads have been completely evaluated, with 25% and 52% threatened, respectively;

• The numbers of threatened species are increasing across almost all major taxonomic groups;

• Continental species extinctions have become as common as extinctions on islands, which are typically more ecologically fragile, and

• Current extinction rates are at least one hundred to a thousand times higher than background, or "natural" rates.

The Red List and the GSA were unveiled today at the opening of the 3rd IUCN World Conservation Congress. Halting the growing extinction crisis will be a major focus of the 3,500 delegates attending the world's largest conservation gat
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Contact: Luba Vangelova
L.Vangelova@conservation.org
202-912-1294
Conservation International
17-Nov-2004