Assessing ecosystems
Assessing ecosystems is essential component of priority setting, action and monitoring, and helps to understand ecosystem trends, showcase its importance to society, and prioritize action.
Indeed, ecosystems are critically important components of Earth’s biological diversity and as the natural capital that sustains human life and livelihoods. Ecosystem degradation has consequences for species habitat, genetic diversity, ecosystem services, sustainable development and human well-being.
Publication
2018
Increasing interest in measuring, modelling and valuing ecosystem services (ES), the benefits that ecosystems provide to people, has resulted in the development of an array of ES …
Conservation Tool
The IUCN Red List of Ecosystems is a tool to assess the conservation status of ecosystems. It is based on scientific criteria for performing evidence-based analyses of the risk of ecosystem collapse,…
Conservation Tool
The IUCN Global Ecosystem Typology is a comprehensive classification framework for Earth’s ecosystems that integrates their functional and compositional features. This new typology helps…
4000+
Risk assessmentsDescription
have been completed and are accessible on the website of the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems
110
Ecosystem Functional GroupsDescription
help classify Earth’s ecosystems and provide a comprehensive framework for assessments in order to identify most critical conservation needs.
Ways to assess ecosystems
The science of assessing ecosystems has evolved to provide accurate analysis and we can differentiate two different ecosystem assessments: ecosystem accounting and ecosystem risk assessment.
Ecosystem accounting
This assessment measures ecosystem stock and flows of services. Different methodologies exist, but the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA), an ongoing initiative by the United Nations, remains the most accepted framework.
Ecosystem Risk
This assessment measures the risk of ecosystem collapse by evaluating trends in extent, condition, and likelihood of collapse. The IUCN Red list of Ecosystems is the reference framework for assessing risk of collapse.
RELATED
Nature 2030 priorities:
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Sustainable development goals:
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Policy work
Mainstreaming ecosystems' assessments
IUCN Members and partners gathered in Marseille to discuss best ways to mainstream ecosystems accounting and risk management.
Strengthening ecosystem typology
In the IUCN Congress 2020 in Marseille, IUCN Members voted for the reinforcement of partnerships and further development of a Global Ecosystem Typology.
Story
Finland Publishes the Most Comprehensive Red List of Ecosystems in the World
The results of the extensive assessment for the Red List of all of Finland’s terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems were published in December 2018. The threat status of ecosystem or habitat types in Finland was now evaluated for the second time,…
Story
12 Jan, 2021
Mangroves, salt marshes and seagrasses of international importance in Mozambique and Tanzania are currently not subject to the level of protection needed to ensure their long-term functioning. …
Story
17 Jan, 2019
According to the first continental ecosystem risk assessment of temperate and tropical forests of the Americas, more than 80% of these forest ecosystems in the Americas are threatened.
Press release
10 Nov, 2016
Gland, Switzerland, 10 November, 2016 (IUCN) – Global changes in temperature have already impacted every aspect of life on Earth from genes to entire ecosystems, with increasingly worrying…
Publication
2021
This report is based on extensive literature search to reveal the elements of animal and plan biodiversity in the State of Kuwait, and points out missing information on other little-known groups…
Assessing ecosystems
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Press release 11 Nov, 2024 -
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