《中国生物多样性红色名录》的制定 及其对生物多样性保护的意义

早在20世纪80年代, 我国就引入IUCN红色名录原理, 对我国生物物种的濒危状况开展评估工作。但是随着经济发展和气候变化, 一些物种的数量和分布区发生了变化, 加之在以往的评估中存在一些不足, 亟需对我国生物物种的濒危状况开展一次全面的评估。2008年, 环境保护部联合中国科学院启动了《中国生物多样性红色名录》的编制工作, 《中国生物多样性红色名录——高等植物卷》和《中国生物多样性红色名录——脊椎动物卷》分别于2013年9月和2015年5月正式对外发布。本文回顾了《中国生物多样性红色名录》的编制背景、过程和取得的成果。《中国生物多样性红色名录》完成了对我国34,450种高等植物和除海洋鱼类外的4,357种脊椎动物受威胁状况的评估, 是迄今为止对象最广、信息最全、参与专家人数最多的一次评估。在评估中取得了一系列成果: 统计了中国已知高等植物和脊椎动物物种数, 确定了物种丰富度在世界上的排名; 完善了国际上所使用的IUCN红色名录评估等级标准体系; 评估分析了我国已知高等植物和脊椎动物的受威胁程度及分布差异; 评估分析了高等植物和脊椎动物濒危灭绝的原因, 其中人类活动导致的生境丧失和退化是首要因素。这些成果将对我国生物多样性保护和管理工作产生积极的影响。

Preparation of the China Biodiversity Red List and its significance for biodiversity conservation within China

China started to use the IUCN Red List Criteria of Threatened Species to assess endangered species in the early 1980s. Although the Species Red List of China has been widely cited both at home and abroad, there are still some imperfections in the red list. In 2008, the Ministry of Environmental Protection of the People’s Republic of China and the Chinese Academy of Science started the project of the China Biodiversity Red List in order to further the understanding of threats to biodiversity in China and to improve the scientific basis of biodiversity conservation. The China Biodiversity Red List: Higher Plants and the Biodiversity Red List of China: Vertebrates were published in September 2013 and May 2015, respectively. Compiling of the Biodiversity Red List of China was a large systematic project, over 500 experts from relevant fields participated the exhaustive assessment of the threat to 34,450 higher plant species and 4,357 vertebrate species (not including marine fishes) in China. This assessment was the largest scale so far which provided the most complete information set for the widest scope of organisms in China. For instance, it summed up the number of known vertebrate and higher plant species in China and confirmed worldwide species richness rankings of the country; it improved the IUCN Red List assessment system as well; it assessed and analyzed the degree of threats to and the differences in distribution of known higher plants and vertebrates in China; and it assessed and analyzed the conditions threatening higher plants and vertebrates. The most prevalent factors threatening higher plants and vertebrates were habitat loss and degradation caused by human activities. The Biodiversity Red List of China will have profoundly influences on biodiversity protection and management in the country.