|
Issues: Species loss
Habitat loss
Indicators: Number of threatened species
Ratio of area protected to maintain biological diversity to surface area*
*MDG indicator no. 26 under Target 9, Goal 7
Threatened species
The number of threatened animal and plant species indicates the extent to which biodiversity is at risk from human activities and pressures on the environment, such as the destruction of habitat. The number of threatened species continues to increase and has now reached about 6 700 animals and 8 300 plant species (Table 1). The considerably higher figure for threatened amphibians in 2004 (31 per cent compared to 2.9 per cent in 1983) is mainly due to preliminary results for Brazil, based on a different categorization method.
These figures need to be treated with caution. The total number of existing species is unknown, and the data on threatened species are incomplete (IUCN 2004). This is especially true for insects, molluscs, crustaceans and plants, since only small portions of these groups have been evaluated to date.
| Table 1: Threatened species |
Number of threatened species |
| |
Number of
described species |
1996/98* |
2000 |
2002 |
2003 |
2004 |
Threatened species in 2004 as
percentage of described species |
| Mammals |
5 416 |
1 096 |
1 130 |
1 137 |
1 130 |
1 101 |
20 |
| Birds |
9 917 |
1 107 |
1 183 |
1 192 |
1 194 |
1 213 |
12 |
| Reptiles |
8 163 |
253 |
296 |
293 |
293 |
304 |
4 |
| Amphibians |
5 743 |
124 |
146 |
157 |
157 |
1 770 |
31 |
| Fishes |
28 500 |
734 |
752 |
750 |
750 |
800 |
3 |
| Insects |
950 000 |
537 |
555 |
553 |
553 |
559 |
0.06 |
| Molluscs |
70 000 |
920 |
938 |
967 |
967 |
974 |
1 |
| Crustaceans |
40 000 |
407 |
408 |
409 |
409 |
429 |
1 |
| Plants |
287 655 |
5 328 |
5 611 |
6 774 |
6 774 |
8 321 |
2.9 |
* 1996 – animals, 1998 – plants
Source: IUCN 2004 |
Figure 9: Protected areas as percentage of total land area by region and global, 1975–2004 |
|
Source: GEO Data Portal, compiled from UNEP-WCMC 2004 |
Protected areas
Although the reported data are incomplete, the trend indicates a steady increase in protected areas over the last decades at regional and global levels (Figure 9). The jump for West Asia between 1990 and 1995 is due to the establishment of a single large protected area in Saudi Arabia in 1994.
Excluding areas for which no starting data are known, the total protected area (terrestrial and marine) in the world is estimated to be 19.5 million km2 (as in November 2004), or about 13 per cent of the total land area (3.8 per cent of the Earth's surface). |
