Chapter 2 - Setting Conservation Priorities

Question 1

What is the role of the International Union of Conserving Nature (IUCN) ?

Answer 1

1) coordinating global data on biodiversity conservation
2) increasing understanding of the importance of biodiversity
3) deploying nature based solutions to gotcha challenges in climate, food and sustainable development

Question 2

What is the IUCN red list

Answer 2

• it’s where the IUCN categorise species according to their vulnerability to extinction
• some vatergorues include; extinct, endangered, vulnerable, least concern.

Question 3

What is the selection of species for categorisation for the IUCN

Answer 3

• a total of about 85,000 species have been assessed and categories, which is a small proportion of the total number of species that exist. Because categorising a species involves a great deal of research, it is important to select species for categorisation carefully

Question 4

What criteria does the IUCN us to select species for categorisation ?

Answer 4

1) habitats that are under threat
2) evolutionary unique species
3) endemic species
4) keystone species
5) flagship species
6) degree of population dispersal

Question 5

1) habitats that are under threat

Answer 5

• key species in habitats that are threatened may be assessed for categorisation
• their status may include the status of the rest of the community of species, such as the decline of lemurs in Madagascar being used to predict the decline of many other species

Question 6

2) evolutionary unique species

Answer 6

• species that have a high degree of evolutionary uniqueness may be categorised, for example, if there are few closely related species
• EDGE species are ‘evolutionary distinct and globally endangered’. These species have few close relatives and are of then the only surviving member of their genus for example the pygmy hippo

Question 7

3) endemic species

Answer 7

• an endemic species is not found in any other area, so if there is a change in the threats to its survival and it dies out locally, there will be no surviving populations elsewhere.
• many endemic species are found on islands for example, Galapagos

Question 8

4) keystone species

Answer 8

• keystone species have important role in maintaining the ecological structure of a community.
• it’s importance is usually great compared with their low abundance or population biomass.
• American forest elephants have impacts that benefit many other species:
  1) they keep oaths through the forest open
  2) they spread the seeds of most tree species
  3) they keep water hole open which origins other species with water and mineral nutrients

Question 9

5) flagship species

Answer 9

• these are species that have a high public profile.
• raising support to protect flagship species may have a wide benefit for wildlife conservation in general
• tigers, elephants and pandas are more likely to raise support than spiders, bats and fungi which may just as ecologically important

Question 10

6) degree of population dispers

Answer 10

• when the global population of a species if fragmented into a number of isolated populations it is important to ensure that viable local populations are maintained