Barometer of Life
In much the same way as a barometer measures atmospheric pressure to help us prepare for adverse weather conditions, The IUCN Red List measures the pressures acting on species, which guides and informs conservation actions to help prevent extinctions. This is why The IUCN Red List is often referred to as a Barometer of Life.
To date, more than 172,600 species have been assessed for the Red List. This is an incredible achievement. However, our work is not complete. We need to increase the number of assessments for animal, fungi and plant species to ensure that The IUCN Red List continues to serve as a powerful conservation tool.
THE GOAL: 260,000 species
The first Barometer of Life target of assessing at least 160,000 species was achieved by 2024. Our current goal, based on The IUCN Red List 2021-2030 Strategic Plan, is to assess at least 260,000 species and to reassess 142,000 of those species. Achieving this will further improve the ability of The IUCN Red List to provide the most up-to-date information on the health of the world’s biodiversity, and thereby guide critical conservation actions.
To reach 260,000 species, we need to do two things:
To reach 260,000 species, we need to do two things:
- Increase the number of experts trained to carry out IUCN Red List assessments.
- Significantly increase the number of species being assessed and reassessed each year.
Progress so far
Currently, the IUCN Biodiversity Assessment and Knowledge Team is managing data for over 172,600 species, and this number is set to increase substantially in the next few years. More than 166,800 species are well documented, with supporting information on ecology, population size, threats, conservation actions and utilization. There are also over 145,800 species with distribution maps. The data held on The IUCN Red List includes non-threatened as well as threatened species, and some taxonomic groups have been completely, or almost completely assessed, including mammals, birds, amphibians, freshwater crabs, warm-water reef-building corals, sharks and rays, groupers, wrasses, lobsters, freshwater fishes, cephalapods, dragonflies and damselflies, trees, cycads and teas.
The IUCN Red List has grown substantially since 2000 (Figure 1). IUCN and its partners are working to expand the number of taxonomic groups that have full and complete Red List assessments in order to improve our knowledge of the status of the world's biodiversity.
Figure 1. Increase in the number of species assessed for The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ [blue line: 2000–2025 (version 2025-2)] and number of species still to assess to reach the 260,000 target (red dotted line).
Figure 1. Increase in the number of species assessed for The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ [blue line: 2000–2025 (version 2025-2)] and number of species still to assess to reach the 260,000 target (red dotted line).