China Species Red List, Volume 1: Red List [English / Chinese]

About this book

Language: Bilingual in English and Chinese

The China Red Data Book of Endangered Animals is a joint publication of China National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) and the Endangered Species Scientific Commission, P.R.C (ESSC).

Few publications can claim to have captured such a vast compilation of detailed technical information as the newly completed China Red Listings, published as a series of 6 volumes. A team of 198 scientists and conservation experts have worked for three and half years to review the conservation status of over 10,000 living species, across the face of one of the world's largest and geographically most diverse countries-China.

The listings present the findings and conclusions of all species of mammals, birds, amphibians and reptiles, fishes, as well as selected groups of insects, mollusks and vascular plants, etc. All have been assigned status according to the newly defined red listing categories developed by IUCN. Detailed description maps of species are included showing all point records held in the rather comprehensive CSIS database managed by the Biodiversity Working Group of China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development based in the Institute of Zoology of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The compendium comprises a stupendous effort by the experts and a personal triumph for the editor prof. Wang Sung, who has been the driving force behind the whole exercise. It is truly a dream come true despite the large scale of the challenge and the shortage of funding and support for much of the work.

Scholarship and dedication apart, the results of the analysis are of grave importance. China's rapid economic growth over the past two decades has been spectacular but not achieved without environmental sacrifice. Much wild habitat has been destroyed or degraded in the great rush towards development-new dams, roads, factories, new towns and associated growth in demand for land, timber, rock, cement, water, wildlife foods, traditional medicines and other resources. The red listing volumes document the losses. Thousands of species that were common in the 1960's have to be now classified as endangered. Some are already extinct.

Contents

Chapter 1 Analysis of Threatened Status of Chinese Species
Chapter 2 How to Use this book
Chapter 3 IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria (version 3.1)
Chapter 4 Guidelines for Application of IUCN Red List Criteria at Regional Levels (Version 3.0)
Chapter 6 China Species Red List
   1. Cnidaria
   2. Platyhelminthes
   3. Mollusca
   4. Arthropoda
   5. Echinodermata
   6. Enteropneusta
   7. Chordata
   8. Gymnospermae
   9. Angiospermae

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