IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: Assessing Its Utility and Value
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (www.redlist.org) is a comprehensive list of relative extinction risk for species around the world. Since it was first established in 1963, the Red List and its Criteria have been revised several times to make them more scientific and objective. Nevertheless, the Red List and its all-inclusive nature have generated some controversy, particularly in terms of what is the most appropriate scale for both assessing and working towards conserving particular species.
In September, 2007, a revised version of the Red List was made available (see www.redlist.org), it included information on more than 40,000 species. Additionally, in the past five years, more than 40 peer-reviewed papers have been published that use “Red List” in the title, suggesting increased interest in the process. It is, therefore, timely to reflect on the strengths and weaknesses, past successes and failures and future directions of the Red List Process.
Endangered Species Research, a journal that focuses on all aspects of biodiversity conservation, whether or not the taxa are included in the Red List, is hosting a forum for the exchange of views on this subject. The Editors have invited a range of authors to submit "As I/We See It" articles; additional expressions of interest are welcomed. We hope the exchange of opinions and information will help identify problems and their possible solutions, and move toward strengthening the Red List and its output.
To discuss the suitability of a manuscript for inclusion in this ESR Special, please contact Dr. Matthew Godfrey (ESR Review Editor) or Dr. Brendan Godley (ESR Editor-in-Chief). Deadline for submissions Dec 10th 2007.
Contents
Theme Section articles appear online (as final unpaginated proofs) as soon as they are finalized by the authors. They will be paginated when the Theme Section is complete.
Komonen A, Jonsell M, Ranius T
AS WE SEE IT: Red-listing saproxylic beetles in Fennoscandia: current status and future perspectives
ESR:pp1 | Full text in pdf format 
Godfrey MH, Godley BJ
AS WE SEE IT: Seeing past the red: flawed IUCN global listings for sea turtles
ESR:pp2 | Full text in pdf format
Hoffmann M, Brooks TM, Fonseca GAB, Gascon C, Hawkins AFA, James RE, Langhammer P, Mittermeier RA, Pilgrim JD, Rodrigues ASL, Silva JMC
REVIEW: Conservation planning and the IUCN Red List
ESR:pp3 | Full text in pdf format