Not evaluated

A not evaluated (NE) species is one which has been categorized under the IUCN Red List of threatened species as not yet having been assessed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.^[1][2] A species which is uncategorized and cannot be found in the IUCN repository is also considered 'not evaluated'.^[3]

Description

This conservation category is one of nine IUCN threat assessment categories for species to indicate their risk of global extinction. The categories range from 'extinct' (EX) at one end of the spectrum, to 'least concern' (LC) at the other. The categories 'data deficient' and 'not evaluated' (NE) are not on the spectrum, because they indicate species that have not been reviewed enough to assign to a category.^[4]

The category of 'not evaluated' does not indicate that a species is not at risk of extinction, but simply that the species has not yet been studied for any risk to be quantified and published. The IUCN advises that species categorised as 'not evaluated' "...should not be treated as if they were non-threatened. It may be appropriate ... to give them the same degree of attention as threatened taxa, at least until their status can be assessed."^{[4]: 7 [5]: 76}

By 2015, the IUCN had assessed and allocated conservation statuses to over 76,000 species worldwide. From these it had categorised some 24,000 species as globally threatened at one conservation level or another. However, despite estimates varying widely as to the number of species existing on Earth (ranging from 3 million up to 30 million), this means the IUCN's 'not evaluated' (NE) category is by far the largest of all nine extinction risk categories.^[6]

Other applications

The global IUCN assessment and categorization process has subsequently been applied at country and sometimes at regional levels as the basis for assessing conservation threats and for establishing individual Red Data lists for those areas.^{[7][8][9][10][11][12]}

Assessment criteria have also begun to be applied as a way of categorizing threats to ecosystems, with every ecosystem falling into the IUCN category 'not evaluated' prior to the start of the assessment process.^[13]

See also

• Data deficient
• Convention on Biological Diversity

Notes and references

1. "About the IUCN Red List". Archived from the original on 2014-09-21. Retrieved 2016-02-19.
2. Walker, Timothy (2013). Plant Conservation: Why It Matters and How It Works. Timber Press. p. 80. ISBN 9781604692600. Archived from the original on 9 February 2023. Retrieved 24 July 2018.
3. "Frequently Asked Questions". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Archived from the original on 1 May 2024. Retrieved 6 May 2024. If a species is not on the website, it is treated as Not Evaluated.
4. IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria: Version 3.1 (PDF) (2nd ed.). Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK. 2012. ISBN 978-2-8317-1435-6. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2018-12-24. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
5. "Guidelines for Using the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria. Version 13" (PDF). IUCN Standards and Petitions Subcommittee. 2017. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 April 2018. Retrieved 24 July 2018.
6. "Wildlife Conservation Resource" (PDF). Marwell Zoo. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 July 2018. Retrieved 23 July 2018.
7. MILLER, REBECCA M.; RODRÍGUEZ, JON PAUL; ANISKOWICZ-FOWLER, THERESA; BAMBARADENIYA, CHANNA; BOLES, RUBEN; EATON, MARK A.; GÄRDENFORS, ULF; KELLER, VERENA; MOLUR, SANJAY (June 2007). "National Threatened Species Listing Based on IUCN Criteria and Regional Guidelines: Current Status and Future Perspectives". Conservation Biology. 21 (3): 684–696. Bibcode:2007ConBi..21..684M. doi:10.1111/j.1523-1739.2007.00656.x. ISSN 0888-8892. PMID 17531047. S2CID 27086108.
8. "Threatened Species Programme | SANBI Red List of South African Plants". redlist.sanbi.org. Archived from the original on 2017-08-02. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
9. Government, Northern Territory (2017-07-24). "Classification of wildlife". nt.gov.au. Archived from the original on 2018-07-24. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
10. "The National Red List 2012 of Sri Lanka Conservation Status of the Fauna and Flora" (PDF). Ministry of Environment, Colombo, Sri Lanka. 2012. Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 July 2018. Retrieved 24 July 2018.
11. Hilton-Taylor, C. (1997). "Red Data List of southern African plants. 2. Corrections and additions". Bothalia. 27 (2): 205. doi:10.4102/abc.v27i2.681. Archived from the original on 2018-07-24. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
12. W., Duckworth, J.; G., Batters; L., Belant, J.; L., Bennett, E.; J., Brunner; J., Burton; S., Challender, D. W.; V., Cowling; N., Duplaix (2012-08-23). "Why South-east Asia should be the world's priority for averting imminent species extinctions, and a call to join a developing cross-institutional programme to tackle this urgent issue". S.A.P.I.EN.S. 5 (2). ISSN 1993-3800. Archived from the original on 2018-07-24. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
13. Rodrıguez, Jon Paul; Keith, David A.; Rodrıguez-Clark, Kathryn M.; et al. (2015). "A practical guide to the application of the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems criteria" (PDF). Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences. 370 (1662). Royal Society: 3. doi:10.1098/rstb.2014.0003. PMC 4290417. PMID 25561664. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 July 2018. Retrieved 24 July 2018.