Threatened species
One of the main objectives of the Humboldt Institute is the
conservation of threatened fauna and flora species and ecosystems in Colombia. In relation
to this a workshop on new categories used on an international level in order to evaluate
the situation of the potentially threatened species was held in cooperation with the
Forest and Wild Life General Direction of the Ministry of
the Environment and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
These new categories are used by the Institute to determine the current status of
Colombian vertebrates and flora.These IUCN categories are:
Extinct (EX): taxon is extinct when there is no doubt that the last existing individual has died.
Extinct in the Wild (EW): taxon is extinct in the wild when it only survives in culture, captivity, or as a population (or populations) completely naturalized outside its original range.
Critically Risk (CR): taxon is in critical risk when it faces a very high extinction risk in the wild in the immediate future.
Endangered (EN): taxon is endangered when it is not under critical risk but faces a high risk of extinction in the wild in the near future.
Vulnerable (VU): taxon is vulnerable when it is nor in critical risk nor endangered but faces a high risk of extinction in the wild in the mid term.
Lower Risk (LR): taxon is in low risk when, after an evaluation, it is not included in any of the former three categories and the data relating to it are not insufficient. The taxa included in this category may be:
- Conservation Dependent (cd): taxa which are the center of a continuous conservation program of taxonomic or habitat specificity directed towards such taxa and if the program terminated this would result in the taxa being included in any of the above mentioned risk categories within a 5 year period.
- Near threatened (nt): taxa which do not classify in (cd) but are close to be classified as vulnerable.
- Least concern (lc): taxa which do not classify in (cd) nor (nt).
Data Deficient (DD): when the information is not adequate to make an evaluation of the risk of extinction, direct or indirect, on the basis of distribution and or population status.
Not Evaluated (NE): when a taxa has not been evaluated according to these criteria.
During the last 30 years the IUCN has used the red lists to draw attention to endangered species. Based on these categories, the new red book (IUCN 1996) was published and within the critical risk, endangered, vulnerable, least risk and insufficient data categories there are 248 Colombian species of vertebrates (89 mammals, 133 birds, 20 reptiles and 8 fish) which present some type of extinction risk at a global level. It is important to emphasize that such list does not include amphibians.
The program also works on the evaluation of the population status of threatened species and reintroduction of threatened species.
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