Editing IUCN Red List (section)

==Categories==
<!--Linked from [[IUCN category]] and [[Template:Conservation status]]-->
{{Conservation status}}

Species are classified by the IUCN Red List into nine groups,<ref>{{citation |title=Guidelines for Using the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria |publisher=[[IUCN]] |date=March 2017 |version=Version 13 |url=http://cmsdocs.s3.amazonaws.com/RedListGuidelines.pdf |access-date=4 January 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180423191058/http://cmsdocs.s3.amazonaws.com/RedListGuidelines.pdf |archive-date=23 April 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref> specified through criteria such as rate of decline, population size, area of geographic distribution, and degree of population and distribution fragmentation.<ref name="Mace 1424–1442">{{Cite journal |last1=Mace |first1=Georgina M. |last2=Collar |first2=Nigel J. |last3=Gaston |first3=Kevin J. |last4=Hilton-Taylor |first4=Craig |last5=Akçakaya |first5=H. Resit |last6=Leader-Williams |first6=Nigel |last7=Milner-Gulland |first7=E.J. |last8=Stuart |first8=Simon N. |date=December 2008 |title=Quantification of Extinction Risk: IUCN's System for Classifying Threatened Species |journal=Conservation Biology |language=en |volume=22 |issue=6 |pages=1424–1442 |doi=10.1111/j.1523-1739.2008.01044.x|pmid=18847444 |bibcode=2008ConBi..22.1424M |s2cid=37234648 |doi-access=free }}</ref> There is an emphasis on the acceptability of applying any criteria in the absence of high quality data including suspicion and potential future threats, "so long as these can reasonably be supported".{{rp|6}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://portals.iucn.org/library/sites/library/files/documents/RL-2001-001-2nd.pdf|title=IUCN RED LIST CATEGORIES AND CRITERIA Version 3.1 Second edition|publisher=2012 International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources|year=2012|access-date=28 February 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190301074755/https://portals.iucn.org/library/sites/library/files/documents/RL-2001-001-2nd.pdf|archive-date=1 March 2019|url-status=live}}</ref><!--

the absence of high-quality data should not deter attempts at applying the criteria, as methods involving estimation, inference and projection are emphasised as being acceptable throughout. Inference and projection may be based on extrapolation of current or potential threats into the future (including their rate of change), or of factors related to population abundance or distribution (including dependence on other taxa), so long as these can reasonably be supported. Suspected or inferred patterns in the recent past, present or near future can be based on any of a series of related factors, and these factors should be specified as part of the documentation.

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*[[Extinct]] (EX) – beyond reasonable doubt that the species is no longer extant.
*[[Extinct in the wild]] (EW) – survives only in captivity, cultivation and/or outside native range, as presumed after exhaustive surveys.
*[[Critically endangered]] (CR) – in a particularly and extremely critical state.
*[[Endangered]] (EN) – very high risk of extinction in the wild, meets any of criteria A to E for Endangered.
*[[Vulnerable species|Vulnerable]] (VU) – meets one of the 5 Red List criteria and thus considered to be at high risk of unnatural (human-caused) extinction without further human intervention.
*[[Near Threatened]] (NT) – close to being endangered in the near future.
*[[Lower Risk]] (LR) – unlikely to become endangered or extinct in the near future.
*[[Data Deficient]] (DD) 
*[[Not Evaluated]] (NE)

In the IUCN Red List, "[[Threatened species|threatened]]" embraces the categories of Critically Endangered, Endangered, and Vulnerable.<ref name="Mace 1424–1442" />

===1994 categories and 2001 framework===
The older 1994 list has only a single "Lower Risk" category which contained three subcategories:

*[[Conservation Dependent]] (LR/cd)
*[[Near Threatened]] (LR/nt)
*[[Least Concern]] (LR/lc)

In the 2001 framework, ''Near Threatened'' and ''Least Concern'' became their own categories, while ''Conservation Dependent'' was removed and its contents merged into ''Near Threatened''.

===Possibly extinct===
The tag of "possibly extinct" (PE)<ref>{{Cite journal |url= https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/131321#page/8/mode/1up |last1=Butchart |first1=S. H. M. |last2=Stattersfield |first2=A. J. |last3=Brooks |first3=Thomas M. |date=5 June 2006 |editor-last=Kirwan |editor-first=Guy M. |title=Going or gone: defining 'Possibly Extinct' species to give a truer picture of recent extinctions |journal=[[Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club]] |volume=126A |pages=7–24 |via=the [[Biodiversity Heritage Library]]}}</ref> is used by [[Birdlife International]], the Red List Authority for birds for the IUCN Red List.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.birdlife.org/action/science/species/global_species_programme/red_list.html|title=Birds on the IUCN Red List|publisher=[[BirdLife International]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131014153403/http://www.birdlife.org/action/science/species/global_species_programme/red_list.html |archive-date=14 October 2013|access-date=26 January 2007}}</ref> BirdLife International has recommended PE become an official tag for Critically Endangered species, and this has now been adopted, along with a "Possibly Extinct in the Wild" tag for species with populations surviving in captivity but likely to be extinct in the wild.<ref>{{Cite web |date=June 21, 2024 |title=IUCN Red List of Threatened Species Summary Statistics |website=IUCN Red List of Threatened Species Summary Statistics |url=https://www.iucnredlist.org/resources/summary-statistics#:~:text=The%20tags%20'Possibly%20Extinct'%20(,for%20which%20confirmation%20is%20required.|access-date=June 21, 2024}}</ref>