Study: IUCN’s Red List of Ecosystems

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New study shows importance of IUCN’s Red List of Ecosystems

08 May 2013 | International news release

A new global standard in assessing environmental risk, the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems, has been trialled on 20 ecosystems spanning six continents and three oceans.
"By knowing which ecosystems are tracking well and which ones are in trouble, governments, industries and local communities will be well-positioned to make smart investment decisions for sustainable environmental management,” says David Keith, leader of the study, published in the Public Library of Science's journal, PLoS ONE.
The development of the new risk assessment method is seen as a major scientific breakthrough for consistent environmental reporting. Modelled on the influential IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™, the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems will identify if an ecosystem is vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered. “For the first time, we have a risk assessment method that is applicable worldwide across terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems,” says co-author Emily Nicholson of the University of Melbourne.
“Our goal is to assess all the ecosystems of the world by 2025 and IUCN will continue to do so for large geographical areas, such as continents and ocean basins. But our database is designed to also accommodate studies done at the level of a municipality, a country, or by ecosystem type, as illustrated in the case studies in the PLoS ONE article,” says Jon Paul Rodríguez, leader of the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems project.
The remote mountain ecosystems of the Venezuelan Tepui are among those at least risk of collapse, according to the study. At the other extreme is the Aral Sea of central Asia, which collapsed during the 1980s and 1990s.
“The lessons from the Aral Sea assessment are sobering" says Richard Kingsford, Director of the Wetlands Centre and co-author of the study. "Not only were a host of species lost forever, but the ecosystem collapse led to socio-economic disaster."
The Aral Sea fisheries and shipping industry collapsed, while increasing respiratory and digestive illnesses and declining life expectancy are associated with dust storms generated from the dry sea bed.
Eight Australian ecosystems assessed in the trial fall between these extremes. Some of these ecosystems are already in rapid decline, while for others the threats are in the early stages and could more easily be addressed by policy and management decisions to maintain ecosystem diversity and functions.
"Sound environmental management is imperative to maintain functional ecosystems, their biological diversity and the ecosystem services upon which our economies and social wellbeing depends,” says Edmund Barrow, Head of IUCN’s Ecosystem Management Programme. "This is especially crucial for the developing world.”
The IUCN Red List of Ecosystems is expected to become a one-stop shop for economists, rural communities, local and national authorities, who can use these assessments to better manage the finite resources of our planet.
IUCN is seeking support to complete the global assessment of conservation status of the world’s terrestrial, freshwater, marine and subterranean ecosystems before 2025.

Notes to editors
An ecosystem refers to an area of land/water, the biodiversity that lives there and the associated physical environment (air, water, rocks etc.) that interact together. Examples of ecosystems include lakes, mountains, riverine systems and coral reefs.
For more information about the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems, please visit:
http://www.iucnredlistofecosystems.org/
http://www.iucn.org/about/union/commiss ... _red_list/

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Here the link to the paper:

Keith DA, Rodrıguez JP, Rodrıguez-Clark KM, Nicholson E, Aapala K, et al. (2013) Scientific Foundations for an IUCN Red List of Ecosystems. PLoS ONE 8(5):e62111. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0062111

Abstract
An understanding of risks to biodiversity is needed for planning action to slow current rates of decline and secure ecosystem services for future human use. Although the IUCN Red List criteria provide an effective assessment protocol for species, a standard global assessment of risks to higher levels of biodiversity is currently limited. In 2008, IUCN initiated development of risk assessment criteria to support a global Red List of ecosystems. We present a new conceptual model for ecosystem risk assessment founded on a synthesis of relevant ecological theories. To support the model, we review key elements of ecosystem definition and introduce the concept of ecosystem collapse, an analogue of species extinction. The model identifies four distributional and functional symptoms of ecosystem risk as a basis for assessment criteria: A) rates of decline in ecosystem distribution; B) restricted distributions with continuing declines or threats; C) rates of environmental (abiotic) degradation; and D) rates of disruption to biotic processes. A fifth criterion, E) quantitative estimates of the risk of ecosystem collapse, enables integrated assessment of multiple processes and provides a conceptual anchor for the other criteria. We present the theoretical rationale for the construction and interpretation of each criterion. The assessment protocol and threat categories mirror those of the IUCN Red List of species. A trial of the protocol on terrestrial, subterranean, freshwater and marine ecosystems from around the world shows that its concepts are workable and its
outcomes are robust, that required data are available, and that results are consistent with assessments carried out by local experts and authorities. The new protocol provides a consistent, practical and theoretically grounded framework for establishing a systematic Red List of the world’s ecosystems. This will complement the Red List of species and strengthen global capacity to report on and monitor the status of biodiversity

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There are example ecosystems used to come up with the list criteria, from most to least endangered. One of the assesed ecosystems: Cape Sand Flats — Fynbos, South Africa - Status: critically endangered


Here some info on this ecosystem:

CAPE TOWN’S UNIQUE BIODIVERSITY ENDEMIC ECOSYSTEMS - 6. Cape Flats Sand Fynbos

What is left?
This is the most transformed of the Sand Fynbos types, and more than 85% of the area has been transformed by urban sprawl and cultivation (mainly smallholdings). Most remaining patches are small pockets surrounded by urban areas, for example Rondevlei, Kenilworth, Milnerton, 6 Base Ordinance Depot,
Plattekloof, Rondebosch Common and Tokai. Most of these patches have been identified as ‘core flora conservation sites’.

Conservation status:
Critically Endangered, with a national conservation target of 30%, but with only 15% remaining. About 1% is statutorily conserved. Some 108 threatened and near-threatened Red List plant species occur on the remnants within Cape Town. The endemics include six species listed as extinct in the wild, some of which are being reintroduced from botanical gardens.

Is there any hope?

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