GLOBAL REPTILE ASSESSMENT
Nearly a fifth of all reptile species globally is at risk of extinction.
KEY POINTS
- Earlier reptiles were omitted from conservation priorities because of a lack of global assessments. Now Global Reptile Assessment took the charge.
- Around 30% of forest-dwelling reptiles are at risk of extinction.
- 14% of reptiles in arid habitats are at risk of extinction.
- 10,196 reptile species are listed under threatened species by International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened species.
REASONS -
- Habitat loss due to agriculture.
- Deforestation.
- Urban development.
- Invasive species
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The threat posed by climate change remains uncertain.
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Reptiles include turtles, crocodiles, lizards, snakes, and tuatara (the only living member of a lineage that evolved in the Triassic period and around 200-250 million years ago).
Many threatened species of reptiles are concentrated in places where other vertebrates are also threatened.
Threatened reptile species are concentrated in Southeastern Asia, West Africa, northern Madagascar, the northern Andes and the Caribbean.
Some parts of southern Asia and the northeastern United States have twice the number of reptile species in a threatened category than that of tetrapods.
Around 15.6 billion years of evolutionary history will be lost from the Earth if this 21% of reptiles go extinct.
Southeastern Asia, India, West Africa and the Caribbean comprise the top 15% areas of phylogenetic diversity loss, with high concentrations of threatened and evolutionarily distinct species.
Conservation-
- Reptiles face a wide range of threats across a variety of habitats because the species are diverse.
- A network of 60 governmental and non-governmental programmes in the USA and Canada is working for conserving plants, animals and ecosystems.
- Land protection is critically important to conserve many threatened species including reptiles, from agricultural activities and urban development.
- Unsustainable harvest and stem the spread of invasive diseases to prevent more species of reptiles from becoming threatened.
