Applications of the IUCN Red List: towards a global barometer for plant diversity

Abstract

The scale of the global biodiversity crisis means that international efforts to identify, conserve and monitor threatened species must be carried out at a greater speed than ever before. Recent developments in information technology present an opportunity to speed up the production of species conservation assessments, and methods and prospects for this are discussed in the context of the work being conducted on plant assessments for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Sampled Red List Index. The need for an internationally agreed upon, comparable, standardised system such as the Red List is emphasised here, but ultimately more efficient tech- niques must be developed to supplement the existing approach if this is to be able to meet the global demand.