The United Nations (UN) Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), for the first time in its history is monitoring the world's plants and animals using the Red List Index developed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). According to sources on Friday, based on the comprehensive IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, the index shows trends in the overall extinction risk for sets of species at global, regional and national levels.
Until now, the seventh MDG, to ensure environmental sustainability, has not included any mention of biodiversity or the need to save species as a critical contribution to human development. The index will be used to monitor progress and will highlight the areas where conservation efforts are needed.
The eighth MDGs, agreed by the world's governments and development institutions, ranges from reducing extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS. They provide measurable targets, which can be achieved by the year 2015. Progress towards achievement of the biodiversity component, will be monitored by measuring the proportion of species threatened with extinction, said a calculation by the IUCN Red List Index.
IUCN has collaborated with BirdLife International, Conservation International, Nature-Serve and the Zoological Society of London to strengthen the standards of the IUCN Red List and to develop the Red List Index. Birds have the longest history of comprehensive assessment of any class of organisms. Therefore, BirdLife International has developed the first IUCN Red List Index for birds, which now has 20 years of trends.
The IUCN Red List Index has been presented for use to the UN through the UN Environment Programme, World Conservation Monitoring Centre, which together with IUCN compiles the World Database on protected areas. This database would be used to report progress in protected area coverage under the biodiversity target of the MDGs.
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