Annabelle Cuttelod

• International Union for Conservation of Nature

Freshwater ecosystems are highly biodiverse¹ and important for livelihoods and economic development², but are under substantial stress³. To date, comprehensive global assessments of extinction risk have not included any speciose groups primarily living in freshwaters. Consequently, data from predominantly terrestrial tetrapods4,5 are used to guide...

Biodiversity loss is a major global challenge and minimizing extinction rates is the goal of several multilateral environmental agreements. Policy decisions require comprehensive, spatially explicit information on species’ distributions and threats. We present an analysis of the conservation status of 14,669 European terrestrial, freshwater and mar...

With the biodiversity crisis continuing unchecked, we need to establish levels and drivers of extinction risk, and reassessments over time, to effectively allocate conservation resources and track progress towards global conservation targets. Given that threat appears particularly high in freshwaters, we assessed the extinction risk of 1428 randoml...

Systematic conservation planning and Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) are the two most widely used approaches for identifying important sites for biodiversity. However, there is limited advice for conservation policy makers and practitioners on when and how they should be combined. Here we provide such guidance, using insights from the recently develo...

We report results from an end-user engagement process, convened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which informed the development of the Global Standard for the Identification of Key Biodiversity Areas. Key Biodiversity Areas are sites contributing significantly to the global persistence of biodiversity. We used a mixed m...

Critical Habitat has become an increasingly important concept used by the finance sector and businesses to identify areas of high biodiversity value. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) defines Critical Habitat in their highly influential Performance Standard 6 (PS6), requiring projects in Critical Habitat to achieve a net gain of biodivers...

Further datasets considered and justification for exclusion. Includes information on which element of the PS6 Critical Habitat they align with, the dataset investigated and the reason it was excluded from the global screening layer. (DOCX)

Relevance of regional-scale designations to Critical Habitat criteria. (DOCX)

Global screening layer (1x1 km raster) for terrestrial Critical Habitat. A GIS dataset of the terrestrial Critical Habitat screening layer is available on request for research and conservation purposes from information@unep-wcmc.org. (DOCX)

Biodiversity features included in the screening layer for the identification of Critical Habitat. Includes information on which element of the PS6 Critical Habitat they align with, the dataset used, their classification as likely or potential Critical Habitat and justification based on the degree of alignment with the PS6 definition and the certain...

Proposed alignment between the KBA criteria in the new global standard for the identification of KBAs (IUCN 2016) and IFC Critical Habitat (CH) criteria. (DOCX)

Knowledge products comprise assessments of authoritative information supported by standards , governance, quality control, data, tools, and capacity building mechanisms.

Unique visitors per year to knowledge products’ websites. (DOCX)

Calculation of the cost of achieving pre-defined baselines by 2020. All extrapolations were derived through data from the sample compiled in the study and projections provided by each knowledge product team. (DOCX)

Currency conversions and accounting for inflation. Costs were provided in British Pounds (GBP), US Dollars (US$), Euros (EUR), Australian Dollars (AUD), and Swiss Francs (CHF) of the year when the investment took place. We accounted for inflation by calculating the value of the currency in 2014 and then we transformed all currencies to US Dollars (...

Extrapolated one-off costs costs per funding source between 1979 and 2013 for all four knowledge products. Extrapolated one-off costs costs per cost categories between 1979 and 2013 for all four knowledge products. (DOCX)

Summary of data collection for all four knowledge products. The table summarises which costs were collected for each of the four knowledge products and how much of the total number of assesments, available in December 2013, these represent. In cases where 100% of the costs were not collected, the total sum for each knowledge product was increased p...

World governments have committed to increase the global protected areas coverage by 2020, but the effectiveness of this commitment for protecting biodiversity depends on where new protected areas are located. Threshold-based and complementarity-based approaches have been independently used to identify important sites for biodiversity. Here we bring...

‘Key biodiversity areas' are defined as sites contributing significantly to the global persistence of biodiversity. The identification of these sites builds from existing approaches based on measures of species and ecosystem diversity and process. Here, we therefore build from the work of Sgró et al. (2011 Evol. Appl. 4, 326–337. (doi:10.1111/j.175...

Migratory marine species (MMS) include many of the world's most charismatic organisms such as marine mammals, seabirds, turtles, sharks, and tuna. Many are now among the most threatened due to the diverse range of pressures they encounter during their extensive movements. This paper shows that 21% of MMS are classified as threatened (i.e. categoriz...

As a global community, we have a responsibility to ensure the long-term future of our natural heritage. As part of this, it is incumbent upon us to do all that we can to reverse the current trend of biodiversity loss, using all available tools at our disposal. One effective mean is safeguarding of those sites that are highest global priority for th...

Human population growth and economic development threaten the integrity of freshwater ecosystems globally, reducing their ability to support biodiver-sity and provide ecosystem services. However, our knowledge of freshwater biodiversity is fragmented due to bias in conservation research toward pri-marily terrestrial or charismatic taxonomic groups....

This European Red List highlights that almost half (44%) of the freshwater species and one out of five (20%) of the selected terrestrial molluscs are threatened. This compares with 37% of freshwater fishes, 23% of amphibians, 19% of reptiles, 15% of mammals and dragonflies, 13% of birds, 9% of butterflies and 7% of the aquatic plants, the other gro...

The IUCN is the leading authority on assessing species’ extinction risks worldwide and introduced the use of quantitative criteria for the compilation of Red Lists of threatened species. Recently, we assessed the threat status of the 483 European butterfly species, using semi-quantitative data on changes in distribution and in population sizes prov...

Executive summary Aim This report reviews the conservation status of all native marine fishes occurring in the Mediterranean Sea, based on the assessments for 513 species and 6 subspecies using the IUCN’s Red List methodology. It identifies those marine fish species that are threatened with extinction at the regional level so that appropriate conse...

Assessing Biodiversity Declines Understanding human impact on biodiversity depends on sound quantitative projection. Pereira et al. (p. 1496 , published online 26 October) review quantitative scenarios that have been developed for four main areas of concern: species extinctions, species abundances and community structure, habitat loss and degradati...

18 freshwater taxa, previously present within the region, are Extinct at the global level, including one endemic sh, Salmo pallaryi, and 17 molluscs, the majority of which are native to the Palearctic northern African region (Maghreb). A further 32 species are Regionally Extinct, which means that they have disappeared from the region, but still exi...

This report contains a review of the conservation status of 165 Mediterranean species of dragonflies occurring in the Mediterranean basin, according to the IUCN regional Red Listing criteria. It identifies species that are threatened with extinction at regional level so that appropriate conservation action can be taken to improve their status.