2000 new species added to IUCN Red List of Endangered Species

The World Conservation Union has posted its annual Red List of Threatened Species. The number of known threatened species now tops 12 000.

Links:

BBC's summary coverage: Oblivion Threat to 12 000 Species

It is worth viewing the small accompanying slideshow (click on the "Open in Pictures" near the beginning of the article).

Readers who take a deep interest in the story will note that the final photograph of the BBC article features St. Helena boxwood, Mellissia begonfolia. To read about the role of UBC Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research's director, Dr. Quentin Cronk, in the conservation of St. Helena boxwood, visit:

Endemics of St. Helena - Boxwood
Saving the remarkable endemic flora of St. Helena via Plant-Talk magazine

Finally, readers of the Plant-Talk magazine will note that Dr. Quentin Cronk was also one of the two researchers to rediscover the St. Helena ebony, Trochetiopsis ebenus, thought extinct for over a hundred years. St. Helena ebony is the white flower pictured in the upper left of the main page of the Red List of Threatened Species web page.

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 1:43 AM on November 18, 2003