An update to the International Union for the Conservation of
Nature Red List of Threatened Species, which assesses the extinction
risk of the world's plants, animals, and fungi, moves a key gorilla
subspecies, the Democratic Republic of Congo's Grauer's gorilla, to
"critically endangered" status.
Just 3800 Grauer's gorilla remain
- a sharp decline in numbers for the world's largest gorilla, and one
largely driven by geopolitical upheaval as the Rwandan genocide drove
large numbers of refugees into the gorilla's habitat.
The sharp
decline of Grauer's gorilla meant that the larger species to which it
belongs, the Eastern gorilla - which also includes the Mountain gorilla -
was listed as "critically endangered".
The international
meeting, which convenes every four years, is the world's largest
environmental decision-making forum, bringing together heads of state
and other government officials, civilians, indigenous peoples, business
leaders, and academics to address the world's biggest conservation
challenges.
Over 8000 delegates from 184 countries are in attendance.
The
IUCN uses the Red List to classify organisms according to the severity
of their extinction risk; in descending order of threat, the categories
are "critically endangered," "endangered," "vulnerable,"
"near
threatened" and "least concern," The list also includes categories for
extinct and data-deficient species. Of the 82,954 species currently
assessed, more than a quarter are threatened with extinction.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11703788
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