![]() ![]() This year the IUCN-the organization that tracks the extinction risk of species around the world- announced several conservation victories, including the previously critically endangered Oaxaca treefrog ( Sarcohyla celata), which is now considered “near threatened” due to protective actions taken by the people who live near it. The new paper warns that many of the species remain critically endangered, or could still go extinct, but we can at least stop the bleeding.Īnd sometimes we can do better than that. Another recent paper found that conservation actions have prevented dozens of bird and mammal extinctions over just the past few decades. ![]() A study published in 2019 found that conservation efforts have reduced bird extinction rates by 40 percent. Because of that, and because many of these species live in hard-to-survey regions, many of the announcements this past year declared species possibly or probably lost, a sign that hope springs eternal.Īnd there’s reason for that hope: When we devote energy and resources to saving species, it often works. Do it too soon, they warn, and the last conservation efforts necessary to save a species could evaporate, a problem known as the Romeo and Juliet Effect. Of course, proving a negative is always hard, and scientists are often cautious about declaring species truly lost. The causes of these extinctions range from diseases to invasive species to habitat loss, but most boil down to human behavior. Most of these species haven’t been seen in decades, despite frequent and regular expeditions to find out if they still exist. This past year scientists and conservation organizations declared that a long list of species may have gone extinct, including dozens of frogs, orchids and fish. That damaging effect is, in reality, impossible to deny. A few months ago a group of scientists warned about the rise of “ extinction denial,” an effort much like climate denial to mischaracterize the extinction crisis and suggest that human activity isn’t really having a damaging effect on ecosystems and the whole planet. ![]()
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