{"id":201591,"date":"2025-10-10T02:19:18","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T02:19:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/201591\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T02:19:18","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T02:19:18","slug":"bangkok-post-global-red-list-of-threatened-species-updated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/201591\/","title":{"rendered":"Bangkok Post – Global \u2018red list\u2019 of threatened species updated"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018Synthetic biology\u2019 also a growing concern for IUCN<\/p>\n

PUBLISHED : 9 Oct 2025 at 11:45<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"\/ \u00a0 Small
\n \"\"\/ \u00a0 Medium
\n \"\"\/ \u00a0 Large<\/p>\n

\"Corals<\/p>\n

Corals and amphibians are among the species hit hardest, with more than 40% of each group under threat in the last update by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. (Photo: AFP) <\/p>\n

ABU DHABI – The world\u2019s top conservation body is holding its world congress starting on Thursday in the Emirati capital Abu Dhabi and will unveil its updated \u201cred list\u201d of threatened species.<\/p>\n

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), whose decisions help set the global agenda on environmental protection, on Friday will publish its list ranking at-risk plant and animal species from \u201cleast concern\u201d to \u201cextinct\u201d.<\/p>\n

The congress, held every four years, sheds light on the dire state of the world\u2019s biodiversity. An increasing number of animals suffer from the destruction of their natural habitat, climate change, and water, air and soil pollution.<\/p>\n

According to the United Nations\u2019 expert scientific panel on biodiversity (IPBES), biodiversity has declined every decade in the past 30 to 50 years.<\/p>\n

The IUCN congress last convened in the French city of Marseille in 2021.<\/p>\n

In an update to its \u201cred list<\/a>\u201d last year, the IUCN said that out of the 169,420 species studied, a total of 47,187 were classified as threatened \u2014 more than a quarter.<\/p>\n

The most impacted species were corals and amphibians, with more than 40% of each group under threat.<\/p>\n

\u2018Urgency\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Congress programme reflects the urgency and ambition of our time,\u201d said Shaikha Salem Al Dhaheri, secretary-general of the Environment Agency of Abu Dhabi and IUCN councillor from the West Asia region.<\/p>\n

IUCN director-general Grethel Aguilar of Costa Rica said the upcoming announcements \u201creflect the scale of ambition and the real possibility of delivering the solutions we need to build a planet where people and nature thrive together\u201d.<\/p>\n

The IUCN congress votes on adopting resolutions.<\/p>\n

Though not legally binding, they can \u201cshape the international agenda\u201d and \u201caccelerate\u201d work on treaties under discussion, an IUCN source told AFP, requesting anonymity to discuss the event freely.<\/p>\n

Synthetic biology debate<\/p>\n

The most closely watched vote revolves around two competing motions on synthetic biology \u2014 a controversial technique widely used in the pharmaceutical industry and agribusiness.<\/p>\n

It enables scientists to redesign organisms by engineering them to have new abilities.<\/p>\n

One motion calls for a moratorium on the technology because \u201cgenetic engineering of wild species in natural ecosystems, including in protected areas, is not compatible with the practices, values and principles of nature conservation\u201d.<\/p>\n

A competing motion argues that synthetic biology could complement conservation efforts, and says IUCN policy \u201cshould not be interpreted as supporting or opposing synthetic biology, per se\u201d.<\/p>\n

Organisers expect 10,000 delegates and 5,000 civil society attendees.<\/p>\n

The IUCN congress describes itself as \u201cworld\u2019s largest and most inclusive nature conservation forum\u201d.<\/p>\n

Its voting members include government agencies, national and international NGOs, and Indigenous groups.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u2018Synthetic biology\u2019 also a growing concern for IUCN PUBLISHED : 9 Oct 2025 at 11:45 \u00a0 Small \u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,15736,18156,66,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-201591","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-conservation","11":"tag-endangered-species","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}