Original purpose and application
With the explosive population growth and economic development, human's demand for energy, land, and water has brought a serious impact on the earth. Human activity and excessive natural exploitation have led to habitat loss and deterioration of other species. A study published in the proceedings of the national academy of sciences found that 96 percent of the biomass of all mammals on earth is livestock (60 percent) and humans (36 percent), with only 4 percent in the wild. Since the dawn of human civilization, 83 percent of wild mammals and 80 percent of Marine mammals have gone extinct.
The IUCN Red List is dedicated to protecting endangered species and refining its work through visual data. It is a comprehensive database for species analysis. The red list isn't just about endangered species and their status. It's a collaborative project with other organizations to create an integrated data network that collates wildlife data and tracks through online tools. It provides information on range, population size, habitat and ecology, use and/or trade, threats, and conservation actions that are important for endangered species protection (IUCN Background, 2019).
Health department researchers use the Red List data to investigate species distribution. This helps them build models to predict future disease and to try to find effective solutions. This is not only good for species conservation, but also for biological research. Many of the species on the red list are also key to human health and livelihoods. To protect biodiversity is to protect our own future.
History, standards, and format
Established by the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 1964, the Red List of endangered species has become the world's most comprehensive source of information on the animal, fungus and plant Species (IUCN history, 2019).
The IUCN red list measures data on species, which helps us understand the trajectory of species and changes in data, and how this relates to human activity and climate change. Huge amounts of data are being used for biological research and conservation. That's why the IUCN red list is often called the barometer of life.
The IUCN Red List is used by government agencies, wildlife departments, conservation groups, natural resource planners, educational organizations, students and businesses. Red List partners include Species Survival Commission, Arizona State University, Birdlife International, Botanical Gardens Conservation International(BGCI), Conservation International, NatureServe, RBG Kew, Sapienza, Zoological Society of London.
Organizational context
The IUCN Red List of threatened species is dedicated to collecting data on endangered plants and animals. More than 112,400 species are listed on the IUCN Red List. Our goal is to assess 160,000 species by the end of 2020. Their most pressing problem now is the need for money and donations.
Fund the reassessment of all integrated assessment teams. This is used to detect species changes.
Funding the assessment of species that are not yet on the IUCN Red List. This will enrich biodiversity and help mankind explore more unknown creatures.
Workflow
The IUCN Red List is compiled and maintained by the International Union for Conservation of Nature Resource (IUCN). The Red List is composed of raw data assessment, which conducted by the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC), appointed Red List Authorities (RLAs), includes SGs, stand-alone RLAs, and partner organizations. IUCN presented an integrated process of how to assess raw data from the database to The Red List and publication (IUCN assessment, 2019).
The goal for IUCN Red List is to re-evaluate each species’ category every five to ten years by using peer review manners in SSC experts group, The IUCN Red List divides species into nine categories based on criteria such as reduction rate, population size, and degree of dispersion, which including EX (Extinct), EW (Extinct in the wild), CR (Critically endangered), EN (Endangered), VU (Vulnerable), NT (Near threatened), LC (Least Concern), DD (Data deficient), and NE (Not evaluated) (IUCN, 2019).
The resources that IUCN Red List provides include summary statistics and spatial data. Summary statistics lists the numbers of different categorized species by using taxonomic groups, number changing or country distributions. Also, it provides tables about species changing from 2006 to 2019 and Extinct species summaries.
Spatial data provides species’ information such as the location, size distribution. Of the 112,432 species that were assessed on The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species more than 78% of these have spatial data (IUCN, 2019). In addition, The Red List provides data in Esri Shapefile format includes taxonomic and selected freshwater groups that have been evaluated, although some are incomplete.
In order to create distribution maps of the spatial data, GIS tools and resources are used for an IUCN Red List assessment. The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) websites and WWF Conservation Science Data and Tools provide access to their datasets about biodiversity. Moreover, The Base data, Mapbatcher and IUCN Red List Toolbox for ArcMap provide geographic and guidance information for assessors to create a format appropriate distribution map.
All data of the IUCN Red List can be applied or downloaded from the website for non-commercial use, such as conservation planning. In order to download the Spatial data, it is necessary to fill the application form through the official website page.
Exploratory Visualization/s of the Data
For data visualizations, we selected the data resource about Threatened species in each country (by taxonomic group) and used North & Central America as examples.
Figure 1: Numbers of threatened species in North America and Central America countries
After examining the rough data, we wanted to specifically look into the area close to the United States, so we cleaned the data, narrowed it down to North America and Central America. This data visualization shows which country in North America and Central America has more threatened species. And how many animals are being threatened by extinction in total by each country. As the data shows, the U.S. and Mexico have much more threatened species than other countries in the area.
Figure 2: Threatened Species in Mammals category in North & Central America
This data visualization shows which country has the most threatened species in the Mammals category in North & Central America. We noticed that although the U.S. has the most threatened species, however, in the Mammal category, Mexico has more threatened species than the U.S.
Figure 3: Threatened species in categories in the United States
As the United States has the most threatened species among North and Central America, we decided to analyze threatened categories in the United States. This chart shows the number of threatened species in the U.S. As we can see, the most threatened species are Plants.
Things to know about the data, including limitations
The IUCN Red List mainly focuses on collecting global assessments for animal species, it includes about 112,432 species of animals, moreover, more than 78% of these have spatial data. By using the spatial data, it helps users to know more about comprehensively assessed taxonomic groups and selected freshwater groups. As the exploratory data visualizations, we have made, they can help users look into threatened species in different areas or in different categories. However, some species that are not listed as data deficient are not mapped in the database.
Other Stories, Reports and Outputs from this data
Data journalist Katharina Buchholz reported on endangered animals at Satista, using the chat from IUCN Red list 2006 to 2018.
Supplementary Information
Authors of this Data User Guide
Source Log
Thanks to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, WWF, Katharina Buchholz, National geographic.Org, and The US Endangered Species Act for their input to this document about the endangerment.