Conservation union finds 16,300 species threatened

By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - From the lowland gorillas of Africa to corals of the Galapagos Islands, more than 16,300 species are threatened with extinction, the World Conservation Union said on Wednesday in its annual Red List.

In what is billed as the world's most authoritative assessment of Earth's plants and animals, the global group considered 41,415 species and found that of those, 16,306 were under threat, said Craig Hilton-Tailor, the list's manager.

That is nearly 200 more species of wildlife than last year, Hilton-Tailor said in a telephone interview, adding that this estimate is "just the tip of the iceberg."

"It's a very bad news story," Jane Smart, head of the conservation group's species program, said at a briefing. "Our lives are inextricably linked with biodiversity and ultimately its protection is essential for our very survival."

Extinction rates are now about 100 to 1,000 times higher than normal, and climate change is already affecting biodiversity, endangered species experts at the briefing said.

The World Conservation Union -- a global group whose members includes nations, government agencies, nongovernmental organizations and thousands of scientists -- aims to "influence, encourage and assist societies" to conserve nature and natural resources.

While it does not play a major role in U.S. decisions on wildlife conservation because the United States does this through its own Endangered Species Act, the conservation union is highly influential in other regions, particularly in developing countries which cannot afford to make their own assessments of which species are in trouble.

CLIMATE CHANGE IS A FACTOR