Which organization publishes the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species?

The International Union for Conservation of Nature publishes the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The organization is commonly abbreviated as IUCN, and its Red List is the world’s most widely used assessment of species’ global extinction risk.

The Red List is more than a simple register of endangered animals. Experts evaluate species using factors such as population size, rate of decline, geographic range, habitat fragmentation, and the likelihood of extinction. The system includes categories ranging from Least Concern and Near Threatened to Vulnerable, Endangered, Critically Endangered, Extinct in the Wild, and Extinct.

A common mix-up is confusing the IUCN with CITES. CITES regulates international trade in threatened species and their products, while the IUCN assesses conservation status. The United Nations Environment Programme and World Wildlife Fund may support conservation work, but they do not publish the IUCN Red List itself.

The Red List’s roots go back to 1964, with early printed Red Data Lists appearing in 1966. Since 2001, new assessments have used the IUCN Categories and Criteria version 3.1 framework.