Abstract
AbstractIn 2014, the International Union for Conservation of Nature adopted the Red List of Ecosystems (RLE) criteria as the global standard for assessing risks to terrestrial, marine, and freshwater ecosystems. Five years on, it is timely to ask what impact this new initiative has had on ecosystem management and conservation. In this policy perspective, we use an impact evaluation framework to distinguish the outputs, outcomes, and impacts of the RLE since its inception. To date, 2,821 ecosystems in 100 countries have been assessed following the RLE protocol. Systematic assessments are complete or underway in 21 countries and two continental regions (the Americas and Europe). Countries with established ecosystem policy infrastructure have already used the RLE to inform legislation, land‐use planning, protected area management, monitoring and reporting, and ecosystem management. Impacts are still emerging due to varying pace and commitment to implementation across different countries. In the future, RLE indices based on systematic assessments have high potential to inform global biodiversity reporting. Expanding the coverage of RLE assessments, building capacity and political will to undertake them, and establishing stronger policy instruments to manage red‐listed ecosystems will be key to maximizing conservation impacts over the coming decades.
Highlights
Biodiversity conservation efforts are increasingly focusing on ecosystems to supplement and complement threatened species conservation (Rodríguez et al 2011)
Our analysis indicates that International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Ecosystems (RLE) indices could inform monitoring toward 12 Targets (Table 2), in particular those related to the rate of loss natural habitats (Target 5) and the management of fisheries (Target 6), forestry (Target 7), ecosystem services (Target 14), and ecosystem resilience (Target 15)
We reported on the key outcomes and impacts of the IUCN RLE since its inception
Summary
Biodiversity conservation efforts are increasingly focusing on ecosystems to supplement and complement threatened species conservation (Rodríguez et al 2011). In 2014, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) adopted the Red List of Ecosystems (RLE) criteria as the global standard for assessing risks to ecosystems. Global biodiversity assessments (e.g., the IUCN RLE and the IUCN Red List of Threatened SpeciesTM) influence conservation practice and policy at multiple levels. Environmental, and economic impacts tend to occur over longer timeframes, involve multiple actors, and may be indirectly related to research outputs (Morgan 2014) In this policy perspective, we use an established impact evaluation framework (CSIRO 2018) to identify the impacts of the IUCN RLE since its inception (Rodríguez et al 2011). Several countries with established ecosystem red lists have already adopted the IUCN RLE criteria (i.e., Norway) or are in the process of doing so (Finland and South Africa). Countries with no prior red lists of ecosystems are adopting the IUCN RLE (e.g., Chile; Pliscoff 2015)
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