Lists of protected land and freshwater molluscs in the Bern Convention and European Habitats Directive: are they relevant to conservation?

Abstract

There is an impending crisis for the conservation of non-marine molluscs; this animal group includes nearly 40% of all known animal extinctions that have occurred since 1600 AD, which is more than all land vertebrates together. However, the species protected by the Bern Convention and European Habitats and Species Directive do not reflect the priorities suggested by the latest IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. Of ca. 3200 species in the European non-marine mollusc fauna, 19 are currently protected under the Bern Convention and 25 (the same 19 and six more) under the European Habitats and Species Directive. The Directive covers 25% of the threatened species from Madeira, but only 2% of those from the rest of Europe. The mollusc species listed in these legislative texts reflect the conservation needs as they were perceived and recorded 10–12 years ago in the IUCN 1988 Red List. Since then, knowledge has changed considerably: two species are considered Extinct and a further nine are not considered Threatened. The present IUCN 1996 Red List includes 145 species of European non-marine molluscs as Threatened. Although it suffers from taxonomic and geographic imbalance, reflecting the expertise available to the compilers, undoubtedly correction of this imbalance is likely to reveal an even higher number of threatened species. Future revision of the European lists of protected mollusc species should consider both threatened narrow-range endemics (such as Mediterranean islands or mountain endemics) and broad-range but declining species (such as river mussels or the edible ‘escargots'), as well as addressing protection of subspecies and removal of species no longer considered threatened.