Vietnam Primate Conservation Status Review 2002 - Hoang Lien ...

Appendix 3
IUCN RED LIST CATEGORIES AND CRITERIA
8 APPENDIX: 3
Since their inception, the IUCN Red Data Books and Red Lists have enjoyed an increasingly prominent
role in guiding conservation activities of governments, NGO's and scientific institutions. The IUCN
Red Lists are widely recognized as the most comprehensive, apolitical global approach for evaluating
the conservation status of plant and animal species. The introduction in 1994 of a scientifically
rigorous approach to determine risks of extinction which is applicable to all species and infra-specific
taxa, has become a virtual world standard (Hilton-Taylor, 2000).
The goals of the IUCN Red List Programme are to:
✱ Provide a global index of the state of degeneration of biodiversity; and
✱ Identify and document those species most in need of conservation attention if global extinction
rates are to be reduced.
For the 1996 Red List, the risk of extinction was evaluated for all known species of birds and mammals.
For the 2000 Red List the primates were the only mammals to be comprehensively reassessed. Much
of the taxonomic revision by Groves (2001) has been adopted by the IUCN-Species Survival Commission
-Primate Specialist Group- and used in the 2000 Red List. Some results on recent investigations,
especially based on DNA are also considered in this Primate Status Review.
The name IUCN Red List of Threatened Species implies that the primary focus is at the species level,
the 2000 Red List also includes all assessments that have been made at the infra-specific and subpopulations
level.
An analysis and identification of the countries with the largest number of threatened species enables
countries to be informed about their global responsibility to protect and maintain the biodiversity for
which they are ultimately the stewards.
The results of the mammals are shown in Figures 1 and 2. The primates make up a considerable
portion of the listing for Vietnam.
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