It is the first-ever multi-taxon global freshwater fauna assessment for The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species led by International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Key-findings
- Major Hotspots: Lake Victoria (Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda), Lake Titicaca (Bolivia and Peru), Sri Lanka’s Wet Zone, and the Western Ghats (India).
- Key threatened species: Crabs, crayfishes and shrimps are at the highest risk of extinction followed by freshwater fishes
- At least 4,294 species out of 23,496 freshwater animals are at high risk of extinction.
- Other: Areas with high water stress (where there is high demand and low supply) and areas with more eutrophication are not home to higher numbers of threatened species than areas with lower water stress and less eutrophication.
- Eutrophication refer to an excess of nutrients in the water leads to overgrowth of algae and plants
About Freshwater Landscapes
- Status: These are home to 10% of all known species on Earth.
- Significance: Provides safe drinking water, livelihoods, flood control and climate change mitigation.
- Threat Faced:
- Pollution: Mainly from agriculture and forestry.
- Degradation: E.g. land conversion for agricultural use, water extraction and the construction of dams.
- Other: Overfishing and the introduction of invasive alien species.
About IUCN (1948)
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