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| The Roloway Monkey of Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana has fewer than 2,000 left in the wild (AFP Photo/SEBASTIEN BOZON) |
Paris (AFP) - Mankind's destruction of nature is driving species to the brink of extinction at an "unprecedented" rate, the leading wildlife conservation body warned Thursday as it added more than 7,000 animals, fish and plants to its endangered "Red List".
From the
canopies of tropical forests to the ocean floor, the International Union for
the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said iconic species of primates, rays, fish
and trees were now classified as critically endangered.
The group
has now assessed more than 105,000 species worldwide, around 28,000 of which
risk extinction.
While each
group of organisms face specific threats, human behaviour, including
overfishing and deforestation, was the biggest driver of plummeting
populations.
"Nature
is declining at rates unprecedented in human history," said IUCN acting
director general, Grethel Aguilar. "We must wake up to the fact that
conserving nature's diversity is in our interest."
In May the
United Nations released its generational assessment of the state of the
environment. It made for grim reading.
The report
warned that as many as one million species were now at risk of extinction, many
within decades, as human consumption of freshwater, fossil fuels and other
natural resources skyrockets.
It found
that more than 90 percent of marine fish stocks are now either overfished or
fished to the limit of sustainability.
The IUCN
singled out a number of sea and freshwater fish that now occupy its highest
threat category of "critically endangered" -- the next step on the
Red List is extinction.
Wedgefishes
and giant guitarfishes, known collectively as Rhino Rays due to their elongated
snouts, are now the most imperilled marine families on Earth.
The False
Shark Ray is on the brink of extinction after overfishing in the waters off of
Mauritania saw its population collapse 80 percent in the last 45 years.
Seven
species of primate are closer to extinction on the new list, including the
Roloway Monkey of Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana, with fewer than 2,000 individuals
left in the wild.
Prime
culprits are humans hunting the animals for bushmeat and "severe habitat
loss" as forest is converted to land to grow food.
40 percent
of all primates in West and Central Africa are now threatened with extinction,
according to the IUCN.
"Species
targeted by humans for food tend to become endangered much more quickly,"
Craig Hilton-Taylor, head of the IUCN Red List Unit, told AFP.
"Species
in environments with lots of deforestation for agriculture end up being
impacted."
'Millions
of years of evolution'
The updated
list shows that over half of Japan's freshwater fish and more than a third of
Mexico's are threatened with extinction due to the loss of free-flowing rivers
and increasing pollution.
More than
500 deep-sea bony fish and molluscs have been added to the list for the first
time posing something of a conservation conundrum as the space they inhabit --
1,000 metres (3,280 feet) beneath the surface -- is often beyond national
boundaries.
"The
alarm bell has been sounding again and again concerning the unravelling crisis
in freshwater and marine wildlife," said Andrew Terry, director of
conservation and policy at the Zoological Society of London.
"Many
of these ancient marine species have been around since the age of the dinosaurs
and losing just one of these species would represent a loss of millions of
years of evolutionary history."
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