CALI, Colombia — More than one-third of the world’s tree species are threatened with extinction, according to the first comprehensive assessment of trees by the world’s leading scientific authority on the status of species.
The findings, announced Monday by the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List, are especially sobering given the amount of life that trees sustain. Countless species of other plants, animals and fungi rely on forest ecosystems. Trees are also fundamental to regulating water, nutrients and planet-warming carbon.
“Trees are essential to support life on Earth through their vital role in ecosystems, and millions of people depend on them for their lives and livelihoods,” Grethel Aguilar, director-general of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, said in a statement.
The tree assessment is considered comprehensive because it includes more than 80% of known tree species. In all, 38% were found to be at risk of extinction. More than 1,000 experts from around the world contributed.
Island biodiversity is particularly vulnerable, in part because those species often have small populations that exist nowhere else, and island trees accounted for the highest proportion of trees threatened with extinction. In Madagascar, for example, numerous species of rosewoods and ebonies are threatened. In Borneo, 99 species in the family of trees called Dipterocarpaceae are imperiled. In Cuba, fewer than 75 mature individuals of the red-flowered Harpalyce macrocarpa, known in Spanish as maiden’s blood, remain.
Around the world, the biggest threats to trees are agriculture and logging, followed by urbanization, said Emily Beech, head of conservation prioritization at Botanic Gardens Conservation International, a nonprofit group that led the research now included in the Red List.
For temperate regions, pests and diseases are major threats to trees. Climate change is an emerging threat, Beech said, and it’s unclear how warming will affect the majority of tree species.
The group announced the findings in Cali, Colombia, where government representatives and other participants from countries worldwide have gathered for the United Nations biodiversity conference, which is held every two years. Now in their second week, negotiations are bogged down in tensions over how countries that are poorer economically but often wealthier in biodiversity are going to pay to conserve and restore nature instead of extracting resources.
Deforestation is devastating for the climate and biodiversity, but the world has struggled to stop it. In 2021, more than 140 countries, including Brazil, China, Russia and the United States, vowed to end deforestation by 2030. So many countries signed on that the agreement covers some 90% of the world’s forests.
In terms of action, though, “the news is fairly bleak,” said Erin Matson, a senior consultant at Climate Focus, a company that leads an annual assessment of progress toward global forest goals. It found that in 2023, the global deforestation rate was 45% higher than it should have been to be on track to halt deforestation by 2030.
“There is a huge blind spot in terms of understanding and prioritizing the value of standing forests,” Matson said. “Governments are often affected just as much by profit motive as private companies, and it’s much easier to make money by clearing a forest or harvesting timber from a forest than by protecting and conserving a forest.”
Still, Brazil has shown that it is possible to curb deforestation with political will and strong enforcement. Now it’s proposing a new fund that would pay developing countries to maintain their forests.
The Red List also announced that the Western European hedgehog, until now considered a species of least conservation concern, has deteriorated to the “near threatened” category. Agricultural intensification, roads and urban development are driving the declines, scientists say.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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