Red List longer than ever

IUCN - The World Conservation Union, which we normally talk about in conjunction with the Wilderness Task Force, has recently released the 2007 Red List:

"There are now 41,415 species on the IUCN Red List and 16,306 of them are threatened with extinction, up from 16,118 last year. The total number of extinct species has reached 785 and a further 65 are only found in captivity or in cultivation."

Now The Economist pointed to 'species inflation' in an article back in May saying:

"As new areas are explored, the number of species naturally increases (see article).
For example, the number of species of monkey, ape and lemur gradually increased until the mid-1960s, when it levelled off. In the mid-1980s, however, it started rising again. Today there are twice as many primate species as there were then.
That is not because a new wave of primatologists has emerged, pith-helmeted, from the jungle with hitherto unknown specimens. It is because a lot of established subspecies have been reclassified as species." - Full article

OK, so the total list of species is longer than ever ... But expressed differently:

"One in four mammals, one in eight birds, one third of all amphibians and 70% of the world’s assessed plants on the 2007 IUCN Red List are in jeopardy."
- http://www.iucn.org/redlist

That should make anybody sit up. But what to do about it?

- In addition to strongly supporting the IUCN, we develop tomorrow's environmentally aware leaders through our school, cadet and social programmes. If you'd like to help more young people go through our training, get in touch or consider making a donation or raise some funds today.

Is there any Wilderness left?

This just in from Nature Conservancy:

Is there any wilderness left? A new article in SCIENCE magazine co-authored by The Nature Conservancy's chief scientist says not really — and that conservation's task is no longer to "preserve the wild, but to domesticate nature more wisely." - Full interview with Peter Kareiva here.

They certainly pull on some strong facts (which we have taken the liberty of borrowing in order to really push the point):

• There's nearly six times as much water held in storage (e.g., behind dams) as there is in free-flowing rivers.
• About 50 percent of the world's surface area has been converted to grazing land or cultivated crops.
• And only 17 percent of the world's land area in 1995 was untouched by the direct influence of humans (such as agriculture, roads or even nighttime lights

We at the Wilderness Foundation have shared this concern since our inception more than thirty years ago.

- Explorers and writers, such as the Foundation’s founder Sir Laurens van der Post and its late patron, Sir Wilfrid Thesiger, often wrote of the ancient link between humanity and nature, and how within our fast moving cultures of today, much of this link has been forgotten.

We believe that by visiting the unspoiled places where nature has been allowed to exist since time began, this connection is rekindled.

We realise this alone is not enough - action must be taken - we welcome the research laid out in the paper and the urgent debate it'll hopefully lead to.

If you'd like to rekindle your connection - come on trail with us - and if you'd like to get involved with the latter, attend the next World Wilderness Congress or get in touch with us. Also, check out the work of the IUCN Wilderness Task Force (co-ordinated by our sister organisation Wild)