Strasbourg, 5 July 2001 T-PVS (2001) 31 [Bern\T-PVS 2001\tpvs31e_2001] English only CONVENTION ON THE CONSERVATION OF EUROPEAN WILDLIFE AND NATURAL HABITATS Standing Committee Preliminary European Red List of Vertebrates Draft for comments - Volume 1 - Joint project between the Council of Europe and the European Environment Agency, based on WCMC draft from 1998. Co-ordinated by the European Topic Centre/Nature Conservation – Paris This document will not be distributed at the meeting. Please bring this copy. Ce document ne sera plus distribué en réunion. Prière de vous munir de cet exemplaire. T-PVS (2001) 31 - II - Comments should be sent to: European Topic Centre for Nature Protection and Biodiversity MNHN 57 rue Cuvier 75231 PARIS Cedex, France
[email protected] - III - T-PVS (2001) 31 About this draft Red List This document is the result of a joint project between the European Environment Agency and the Council of Europe to develop a preliminary European Red List of Vertebrates. It is based on a first draft by WCMC in 1998. Except for Birds (Birdlife International, 1994), no assessment is yet available on the conservation status of Vertebrate species at European level, while Red Books exist at national level in almost all European countries. On the other hand, a global list of threatened species is published and maintained up-dated by IUCN according to well defined criteria (IUCN, 2000). The present assessment is a first attempt to identify the most threatened Vertebrates species at European level, building upon a first analysis of the list of globally threatened species present in Europe (WCMC, 1998) and taking into account the most recent available overviews on European species distribution provided by the various European atlas committees (European Bird Census Council; Societas Europaea Herpetologica, Societas Europea Mammalogica).