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The Mediterranean Biodiversity: a Hotspot Under Threat

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The Mediterranean Biodiversity: a Hotspot Under Threat THE MEDITERRANEAN: A BIODIVERSITY HOTSPOT UNDER THREAT Annabelle Cuttelod, Nieves García, Dania Abdul Malak, Helen Temple and Vineet Katariya The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ Acknowledgements: This publication is part of The 2008 Review of The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The IUCN Red List is compiled and produced by the IUCN Species Programme based on contributions from a network of thousands of scientifi c experts around the world. These include members of the IUCN Species Survival Commission Specialist Groups, Red List Partners (currently Conservation International, BirdLife International, NatureServe and the Zoological Society of London), and many others including experts from universities, museums, research institutes and non-governmental organizations. The long list of people, partners and donors who made this review possible can be found at the following address: www.iucn.org/redlist/ Citation: Cuttelod, A., García, N., Abdul Malak, D., Temple, H. and Katariya, V. 2008. The Mediterranean: a biodiversity hotspot under threat. In: J.-C. Vié, C. Hilton-Taylor and S.N. Stuart (eds). The 2008 Review of The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN Gland, Switzerland. Credits: Published by IUCN, Gland, Switzerland Chief Editor: Jean-Christophe Vié Editors: Craig Hilton-Taylor and Simon N. Stuart ISBN (The 2008 Review of The IUCN Red List of Threatened): 978-2-8317-1063-1 Layout: Lynx Edicions, Barcelona, Spain © 2008 International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources Cover photo: Dalmatian coast (Croatia). © Pedro Regato The Mediterranean: a biodiversity hotspot under threat Annabelle Cuttelod, Nieves García, Dania Abdul Malak, Helen Temple and Vineet Katariya The diverse Mediterranean noted for the diversity of its plants – and 3% of the birds. The Mediterranean The Mediterranean Basin is one of the about 25,000 species are native to the is also hosting 253 species of endemic world’s richest places in terms of animal region, and more than half of these are freshwater fi sh. Although the Mediterranean and plant diversity. This diverse region, endemic – in other words, they are found Sea makes up less than 1% of the global with its lofty mountains, ancient rivers, nowhere else on earth. This has led to the ocean surface, up to 18% of the world’s deserts, forests, and many thousands of Mediterranean being recognized as one macroscopic marine species are found islands, is a mosaic of natural and cultural of the fi rst 25 Global Biodiversity Hotspots there, of which 25 to 30% are endemic landscapes, where human civilization and (Myers et al. 2000). – an incredibly rich biodiversity for such a wild nature have coexisted for centuries small area (Bianchi and Morri 2000). The (Figure 1). The unique conjunction of Besides this great richness of plants, a Mediterranean’s importance for wildlife is geography, history, and climate has led high proportion of Mediterranean animals not limited to the richness or uniqueness to a remarkable evolutionary radiation are unique to the region: 2 out of 3 of its resident fauna and fl ora: millions that continues to the present day, as amphibian species are endemic, as well of migratory birds from the far reaches animals and plants have adapted to the as half of the crabs and crayfi sh, 48% of of Europe and Africa use Mediterranean myriad opportunities for life that the region the reptiles, a quarter of mammals, 14% wetlands and other habitats as stopover or presents. The Mediterranean is particularly of dragonfl ies, 6% of sharks and rays breeding sites. Figure 1. Map of the Mediterranean Sea and surrounding countries 1 Box 1: Why is species conservation important? Species provide us with essential services: not only food, fuel, clothes and spiritual values. Consequently the loss of species diminishes the and medicine, but also purifi cation of water and air, prevention of soil quality of our lives and our basic economic security. From an ethical erosion, regulation of climate, pollination of crops by insects, and many point of view, species are part of our natural heritage and we owe it to more. In the Mediterranean, they provide a vital resource for the tourism future generations to preserve and protect them. and fi shing industries, as well as having signifi cant cultural, aesthetic The Human Factor beauty, but heavy pressure from visitors provides sound scientifi c data to decision- In addition to its thousands of species of and residents alike is causing severe makers for policy development and fauna and fl ora, the Mediterranean region environmental degradation. Urbanization, management of natural resources. These is home to some 455 million human coastal development, pollution, and assessments will help Mediterranean inhabitants, from a wide variety of countries unsustainable exploitation of natural countries to determine whether or not they and cultures. Considerable economic resources such as marine fi sh are just have met their obligations, commitments disparities exist within the region, with the some of the many human activities that are and targets under international GNI per capita of the Mediterranean EU leading to an ever-increasing number of agreements, such as the target to reduce countries (USD 20,800) being ten times Mediterranean species to be facing a high the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010 under that of the North African ones (USD 2,100) risk of extinction. the Convention on Biological Diversity (World Bank 2006). Poor people depend (CBD 2002). Hence IUCN is coordinating heavily on natural resources and the loss of “An outstanding centre of a process to evaluate the conservation biodiversity is undermining the potential for biodiversity but also one of status of all vertebrates and selected economic growth, affecting the security of the most threatened, mainly invertebrate and plant groups in the populations (food, health, etc.) and limiting by human activity” Mediterranean region, including terrestrial, their options. On the other hand, economic freshwater and marine species. In total, development increases the pressures on 1,912 species have been assessed to the environment and hence conservation Assessing Mediterranean date (Table 1). Some taxonomic groups challenges and options in the region are Species have been assessed at the global level driven by these economic inequities. Assessing the conservation status of (amphibians, birds, mammals and reptiles), species at the Mediterranean regional level while others have been evaluated regionally The region also receives a large number is particularly relevant to regional policy (cartilaginous fi shes, cetaceans, crabs of visitors: in 2005, 246 million people – instruments such as the Convention for the and crayfi sh, endemic freshwater fi shes 31% of all international tourists – visited Protection of the Marine Environment and and Odonata (dragonfl ies and damselfl ies, the Mediterranean, particularly its coastal the Coastal Region of the Mediterranean later referred to collectively as dragonfl ies)). areas (Blue Plan 2008). Many visitors or Barcelona Convention. It gives a timely Although the global and regional to the region are drawn by its natural overview of the status of biodiversity, and assessments are not directly comparable Table 1. Numbers of species from Mediterranean countries assigned to each IUCN Red List category, by taxonomic group. Assessments carried out between 2004 and 2008 by IUCN and its partners. Data Defi cient means that there is not enough information to assign the species to one of the other Categories, and it does not imply that the species is not threatened. Endemic IUCN Red List Cartilaginous Crabs and Amphibians1 Birds1 Cetaceans2,3 Freshwater Mammals1 Dragonfl ies2,4 Reptiles1 TOTAL Categories fi shes2 Crayfi sh 2,3 fi shes1,4 Extinct5 110 0 0 8 2 4 016 Critically 4 6 13 1 0 45 5 5 14 93 Endangered Endangered 13 9 8 2 3 46 15 13 22 131 Vulnerable 16 13 9 2 2 51 27 13 11 144 Near Threatened 17 29 13 0 4 10 20 27 36 156 Least Concern 63 543 10 0 5 52 231 96 253 1253 Data Defi cient 1 0 18 4 0 41 30 6 19 119 TOTAL 115 601 71 9 14 253 330 164 355 1912 Endemic 71 (62%) 16 (3%) 4 (6%) 0 (0%) 7 (50%) 253 (100%) 87 (26%) 23 (14%) 170 (48%) 631 (33%) 1 Species assessed at the global level. 2 Species assessed at the regional level. 3 Preliminary data; still to be confi rmed by the IUCN Red List Authority. 4 Only the species occurring in river basins fl owing into the Mediterranean Sea and adjacent Atlantic waters were included in the assessment (Smith and Darwall 2006). 5 “Extinct” includes the categories Extinct, Extinct in the Wild and Regionally Extinct. 2 Birds2 Reptiles2 Mammals2 1 Odonata EX 2 CR/EN/VU Amphibians LC/NT Crabs and crayfish1 DD Cartilaginous fishes1 Cetaceans1 Endemic freshwater fishes2 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 % of species 1 Species assessed at the regional level 2 Species assessed at the global level Figure 2. Percentages of Extinct, threatened, non-threatened and Data Defi cient species in each major taxonomic group assessed. with each other, they do give an indication and crayfi sh, 29% of amphibians, 19% is about one fi fth (19%) and about 1% of the different levels of threat faced by of dragonfl ies and damselfl ies, 14% of of the species is already extinct in the each taxonomic group. mammals, 13% of reptiles and 5% of birds region. These percentages will be higher are threatened with extinction. Overall, the if some of the currently Data Defi cient A closer look at the different groups shows proportion of threatened species in the species prove to be threatened. Sixteen that at least 56% of endemic freshwater Mediterranean (those classifi ed as Critically species are already extinct in the region, fi shes, 56% of dolphins and whales, Endangered, Endangered or Vulnerable), including some endemics such as the Hula 42% of sharks and rays, 36% of crabs either at the global or at the regional level, Painted Frog Discoglossus nigriventer, the Figure 3a.
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