Ireland's State of the Environment Report 2024

167 Chapter 7: Nature International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of threatened species in Ireland What is often missed in our current understanding of biodiversity in Ireland is the sheer number of species and groups that have not received any assessment to date (see Kelly-Quinn et al. , 2020). Most of our assessed species are listed in both the EU Habitats and Birds Directives and are therefore required to be assessed on a 6-year basis. However, these species represent just a small proportion of all the species found in Ireland. It is estimated that our island has at least 31,000 species: only about a tenth of these have had their conservation status assessed. This means that there is a fundamental gap in our knowledge about how biodiversity is changing in Ireland. Even within certain groups such as the insects, for example, data can often be over-reliant on particular groups such as moths and butterflies (Lepidoptera) and do not paint an accurate picture of the status of the wider diversity of insect groups (Duffus and Morimoto, 2022). Such an approach can mask declines or improvements in less well-studied groups. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) was established in 1964. Its Red List of Threatened Species has evolved to become the world’s most comprehensive information source on the 6 Full list of Red Lists reports for Ireland can be found here: www.npws.ie/publications/red-lists (accessed 1 April 2024). 7 The last grey wolf ( Canis lupus ) was reportedly shot in Co. Carlow in 1786 (Fairley, 1984; Hickey, 2016). conservation status of animal, fungi and plant species. It is independent of other reporting mechanisms, such as the EU Habitats and Birds Directives. The IUCN Red List is a critical indicator of the health of the world’s biodiversity (ICUN, 2012) and has been used to assess several groups in Ireland. Unfortunately, of the Red List assessments completed up to 2020, 433 (14%) of 3145 Irish species assessed using the IUCN criteria are considered threatened with extinction, and 9% are near threatened. 6 Some notable examples include the angel shark ( Squatina squatina ), basking shark ( Cetorhinus maximus ), European eel ( Anguilla anguilla ), Arctic char ( Salvelinus alpinus ) and Atlantic salmon ( Salmo salar ). More worryingly, 82 (3%) species assessed have been categorised as extinct in Ireland (Figure 7.9), most notably the grey wolf ( Canis lupus ), 7 once widespread in Ireland but hunted to extinction. Other extinct species may be less well known but include the orange-striped stonefly ( Perlodes mortoni ), the minutest diving beetle ( Bidessus minutissimus ), the grass-like wetland specialist Buxbaum’s sedge ( Carex buxbaumii ) and the moss Dicranum undulatum , to name a few. The loss of Dicranum undulatum , a species once recorded in raised bogs in the midlands, is almost certainly due to drainage and damage to its habitat by industrial-scale peat extraction (Lockhart et al. , 2012). Figure 7.9  A summary of all IUCN Red List assessments for Irish flora and fauna carried out between 2006 and 2020 highlighting regionally extinct (black), threatened (red) and near threatened (orange) species ˜ Regionally extinct ˜ Threatened ˜ Near threatened ˜ Least concern/Data deficient/Not evaluated 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Stoneflies (2020) Terrestrial mammals (2019) Cartilaginous fish (2016) Vascular plants (2016) Macro-moths (2016) Bryophytes (2012) Mayflies (2012) Damselflies & dragonflies (2011) Amphibians & reptiles (2011) Freshwater fish (2011) Butterflies (2010) Non-marine snails (2009) Water beetles (2009) Bees (2006) All Irish IUCN Red List Assessments Source: Data sourced from published reports at www.npws.ie/publications/red-lists