The IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria

The IUCN Red List lists species according to their estimated risk of extinction. In national or regional Red Lists, species are assigned one of eleven threat Categories (see Table 1 and here). These Categories indicate the conservation status of the species, whereby species that are categorised as Critically Endangered, Endangered or Vulnerable are considered to be threatened species, i.e. their extinction is imminent.

Table 1. Definition of IUCN Red List Categories.

Red List Index

To assess the conservation status of species, the IUCN Red List uses a set of five criteria (A-E) related to population size, geographic range, and rates of decline that are applicable across the whole taxonomic range of species (see Box 1, and more details here). The criteria are developed for quantitative evaluation of extinction risk, but allow for several levels of uncertainty to be accounted for in the assessment process. Applying the system to a species eventually yields an objective, comprehensive summary of its conservation status.

National assessments

In contrast to global assessments, regional or national assessments need to account for neighbouring populations and non-resident taxa. There are additional guidelines set out by IUCN for such assessments. A species’ conservation status within a country or region may differ from its global Red List status because extinction risk is not uniform across the species range. However, when a species is endemic to the country, its national assessment will determine its global conservation status.

The National Red List Process

Red List assessments based on the IUCN methodology need to follow proper scientific practice and are subject to peer-review. This is true for the global assessments as well as the national assessments. A typical IUCN Red List assessment process generally consists of a number of steps:

1. Pre-assessment: an overview of all available nation-wide information for the species to be assessed is compiled.
2. Assessment: the information is used to assess the extinction risk of the species according to the IUCN Criteria and to assign the relevant Category. The assessment process is thoroughly documented, such that decisions and assumptions can be evaluated during the review process.
3. Review and consistency check: the assessment is checked by independent reviewers for proper application of the criteria, proper application of scientific standards and consistent interpretation of Red List terms and definitions.
4. Publication: the Red List website is updated at pre-set intervals and any new assessments will be published during the next update.

Supporting information – Red List assessments need to be extensively documented and require descriptive as well as quantitative information. The IUCN Red List Criteria themselves are quantitative in nature, and each Criterion depends on one or more specific types of data.

Box 2 – Required supporting information for IUCN Red List assessment

Data management – Following the Red List assessments, the assigned Categories and Criteria from all assessments, as well as their complete documentation are ideally stored in a database that can be updated as the need arises. Currently, the National Red List assessments are stored and managed in IUCN’s global Species Information Service (SIS). Information is extracted from the SIS and presented on this website.

Roles in the Red List process – While a legal framework for the National Red List is in place in North Macedonia, a framework for planning and implementing the Red List assessments, e.g. a Red List steering committee, is currently absent. To conduct individual species assessments in practice, three types of involvement are needed: contributors, assessors and reviewers. Contributors are persons or national institutions that provide data, but are not involved in conducting the actual assessment. Assessors are usually national experts on certain taxonomic groups that are conducting the assessments, and usually also provide at least part of the data. Ideally, assessors are trained by IUCN to properly apply the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria at the national level. Reviewers are preferably experts on the species for which they are reviewing the assessment, but of primary importance is their familiarity with the IUCN Red List methodology.

IUCN ECARO has been involved in the first phase of the National Red List as a surrogate steering committee in order to provide guidance and training throughout the process. It produced a “National Red Lists for Species Conservation in North Macedonia”, and conducted a 4-day Red List Assessor training workshop in Skopje in April 2018. Thirty-five experts from NGOs, universities, private sector and government in North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia attended the workshop, supporting the exchange of red-listing experience from across the region. Using lectures, hands-on group-work tasks and knowledge tests, the workshop provided the participants with an in-depth understanding of the process of assessing the extinction risk of species, covering the data requirements, the assessments methodology, available tools, spatial representation, and data management options. A discussion session on how the newly gained information can be used to guide the national red-listing process in the country was held, forming a basis for chalking out the further process. IUCN remains available to be involved in future efforts.