Climate & Environment
Threatened Species
Definition
Threatened species are those assessed by the IUCN Red List as facing a high to extremely high risk of extinction in the wild, grouped in three categories: critically endangered, endangered and vulnerable. Assessment applies quantitative criteria — population size and decline rate, geographic range, and extinction probability models. The Red List now covers over 160,000 species, of which more than 44,000 are threatened, including around 41% of amphibians, a quarter of mammals and over a third of reef corals assessed.
References
This reference provides supporting context for how “Threatened Species” is defined and used.
Source imported for editorial provenance.
Overview
How it is used
The classification structures conservation policy, environmental impact assessment, no-go commitments by companies, and the Kunming-Montreal Framework's extinction targets.
Why it matters
"Threatened" is the official warning label on the tree of life; the length of that list is the scoreboard of the extinction crisis.