Plant & Animal Species Disappearing In A "Tsunami" Of Extinction As WCC Preps For Quadrennial Meet

[hatrack]

ANIMAL and plant species are vanishing at unprecedented rates, evidence that the Earth is facing a tsunami of mass extinction, warn experts gathering for a global conservation conference starting tomorrow. Whether through habitat loss, pollution, hunting or indirectly by global warming, humans are to blame for what may be the first major die-off in 65 million years, they say.

More than 8000 ministers, UN officials, NGOs, scientists and business chiefs will be in Barcelona, Spain, for the World Conservation Congress, held every four years. The release on Monday of an update of the Red List, the global standard for conservation monitoring, will include the most comprehensive study made of the survival status of Earth's more than 5000 mammal species.

The biodiversity "bible" is the work of 1700 experts, and scientists who took part say it will make for grim reading. The 2007 edition already shows more than a third of 41,000 species surveyed face extinction: one in four mammals, one in eight birds, one in three amphibians, and 70% of plants. Our closest evolutionary cousins, primates, are especially vulnerable. Hunted for food and traditional medicines, their habitat dwindling, more than 70% of known species in Asia, for example, are under threat.

"Biodiversity is disappearing at an accelerated rhythm and we have to act quickly to slow and prevent the extinction crisis," said Julia Marton-Lefevre, director general of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, organiser of the October 5-14 congress. With 11,000 volunteer scientists and more than 1000 paid staff, the IUCN runs field projects around the globe. "No species is superfluous — each one is the product of millions of years of evolution and plays a role in the ecosystem," said Wendy Foden, head of the IUCN climate change and species program.

EDIT

http://www.theage.com.au/world/earth-faces-tsunami-of-species-loss-20081003-4tji.html