2009 World Biodiversity Day: Europe's reptiles and amphibians in serious decline.

New studies commissioned by the European Commission and carried out by IUCN (the International Union for the Conservation of Nature) constitute the first European Red Lists for amphibians and reptiles, and reveal alarming population trends.

Concerned URL	http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/conservation/species/redlist/
Source	http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/09/815&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
Release date	20/05/2009
Contributor	spyropoulou
Geographical coverage	EU, Europe
Keywords	red list , amphibians and reptiles, biodiversity

More than half of all European amphibians (59 percent) and 42 percent of reptiles are in decline, which means that amphibians and reptiles are even more at risk than European mammals and birds. For 23 percent of amphibians and 21 percent of reptiles the situation is so severe that they are classified as threatened in the European Red List. Most of the pressure on these declining species comes from mankind's destruction of their natural habitats, combined with climate change, pollution and the presence of invasive species. Compiled by the IUCN, the European Red Lists are a framework to classify species according to their extinction risk. Threatened species are those who are classified as Critically Endangered, Endangered, or Vulnerable.

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