Photos © Frank Vassen
The European Red List is a review of the status of European species according to the IUCN regional Red Listing guidelines. It identifies those species that are threatened with extinction at the European level (Pan-Europe and the European Union) so that appropriate conservation action can be taken to improve their status.
Funded by the European Commission since 2006, through a mix of funding schemes, the European Red List is compiled by IUCN’s Global Species Programme in collaboration with the Species Survival Commission and other partners and experts. To date 15,060 species have been assessed on the European Red List including invertebrate species such as dragonflies, grasshoppers, crickets and bush-crickets. In particular the red list has been key in establishing an understanding of the status of pollinating insects in Europe with three pollinator groups having been assessed so far (butterflies, bees and saproxylic beetles).
The compilation of information to produce the European Red List of Hoverflies is currently ongoing, and in December 2020 the European Commission kick-started the European Red List of Moths and European Red List of Taxonomists.
To learn more about the European Red List Initiative please consult IUCN’s webpage.