Fish species, threatened - Country Ranking - Africa

Definition: Fish species are based on Froese, R. and Pauly, D. (eds). 2008. Threatened species are the number of species classified by the IUCN as endangered, vulnerable, rare, indeterminate, out of danger, or insufficiently known.

Source: Froese, R. and Pauly, D. (eds). 2008. FishBase database, www.fishbase.org.

See also: Thematic map, Time series comparison

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Development Relevance: As threats to biodiversity mount, the international community is increasingly focusing on conserving diversity. The Red List Index for the world's birds shows that there has been a steady and continuing deterioration in the threat status of the world's birds since 1988, when the first complete global assessment was carried out. The number of threatened species is an important measure of the immediate need for conservation in an area. Global analyses of the status of threatened species have been carried out for few groups of organisms. Only for mammals, birds, and amphibians has the status of virtually all known species been assessed. Threatened species are defined using the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) classification: endangered (in danger of extinction and unlikely to survive if causal factors continue operating) and vulnerable (likely to move into the endangered category in the near future if causal factors continue operating). The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species is widely recognized as the most comprehensive, objective global approach for evaluating the conservation status of plant and animal species. The IUCN guides conservation activities of governments, NGOs and scientific institutions. The introduction in 1994 of a scientifically rigorous approach to determine risks of extinction that is applicable to all species, has become a world standard. The IUCN draws on and mobilizes a network of scientists and partner organizations working in almost every country in the world, who collectively hold what is likely the most complete scientific knowledge base on the biology and conservation status of species. The freshwater system represents the most threatened of all ecosystems, and many freshwater species have a very high livelihood value for local human communities. IUCN's freshwater focus is on the following taxonomic groups: fish; molluscs; crabs and crayfish; and dragonflies. Global assessment of these groups is being pursued through a series of regional projects, such as one for Africa that is currently being implemented. The marine realm is poorly covered in the IUCN Red List, comprising less than 5 percent of the species included. IUCN has identified priority taxonomic groups of marine fish, invertebrates, plants (mangroves and seagrasses) and macro-algae (seaweeds). If these priority groups can be assessed, the number of marine species on the IUCN Red List will be increased more than six-fold. Direct threats to species are the proximate human activities or processes that have impacted, are impacting, or may impact the status of the taxon being assessed (e.g., unsustainable fishing or logging). Direct threats are synonymous with sources of stress and proximate pressures. Threats can be past (historical, unlikely to return or historical, likely to return), ongoing, and/or likely to occur in the future.

Limitations and Exceptions: Reporting the proportion of threatened species on the Red List is complicated by the fact that not all species groups have been fully evaluated, and also by the fact that some species have so little information available that they can only be assessed as Data Deficient (DD). For many of the incompletely evaluated groups, assessment efforts have focused on species that are likely to be threatened; therefore any percentage of threatened species reported for these groups would be heavily biased (i.e., the percentage of threatened species would likely be an overestimate). Since IUCN has evaluated extinction risk for less than 5 percent of the world's described species, IUCN cannot provide an overall estimate for how many of the planet's species are threatened. For those groups that have been comprehensively evaluated, the proportion of threatened species can be calculated, but the number of threatened species is often uncertain because it is not known whether Data Deficient species are actually threatened or not. Due to variations in consistency and methods of collection, data quality is highly variable across countries. Some countries update their information more frequently than others, some have more accurate data on extent of coverage, and many underreport the number or extent of protected areas. Also, because of differences in definitions, reporting practices, and reporting periods, cross-country comparability of threatened species is limited. In order to ensure global uniformity when describing the habitat in which a taxon (a taxonomic group of any rank) occurs, the threats to a taxon, what conservation actions are in place or are needed, and whether or not the taxon is utilized, a set of standard terms, called Classification Schemes, are being developed, for documenting taxonomy on the IUCN Red List.

Statistical Concept and Methodology: Species assessed as Critically Endangered (CR), Endangered (EN) or Vulnerable (VU) are referred to as "threatened" species. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species collects and disseminates information on the global threated species. Proportion of threatened species is only reported for the more completely evaluated groups (i.e., >90% of species evaluated). Also, the reported percentage of threatened species for each group is presented as a best estimate within a range of possible values bounded by lower and upper estimates: Lower estimate = % threatened extant species if all Data Deficient species are not threatened, i.e., (CR + EN + VU) / (total assessed - EX) Best estimate = % threatened extant species if Data Deficient species are equally threatened as data sufficient species, i.e., (CR + EN + VU) / (total assessed - EX - DD) Upper estimate = % threatened extant species if all Data Deficient species are threatened, i.e., (CR + EN + VU + DD) / (total assessed - EX) Additional information on ecology and habitat preferences, threats, and conservation action are also collated and assessed as part of Red List process.

Aggregation method: Sum

Periodicity: Annual