2002 IUCN Red List Status Assessments
DRAFT Green Turtle Assessment
for MTSG-wide review
1 May, 2002

                                              Photo by Kim Clifton

We are happy to present Jeffrey Seminoff's Draft Reassessment of the Green Turtle Status for the IUCN Red List, which is based on

• the 2000 Red List Criteria,

• the June 2001 Guidelines for Assessing Taxa with Widely Distributed or Multiple Populations Against Criterion A, and

• data compiled from more than 80 sources around the world. 

We also invite you to review and comment on this document by June 20th, 2002. In order to focus your comments in the most useful manner some background on the process is provided here.

Background

In the early 1990s, the Species Survival Commission (SSC) of the IUCN entered into a global consultation in order to provide more consistency to the classifications of species on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.  This consultation resulted in the 1994 Red List Criteria.  In 1995, the various specialist groups were asked to assess the species with which they worked under these criteria and provide their classifications to the SSC.  Given that each specialist group comprised the global experts on the species in consideration, documentation for the assessments specifically was not required. At that time, and under those circumstances, the MTSG classified the green turtle as “Endangered” at a global scale.

In 2000, following another SSC-wide consultation, the Red List Criteria were revised (http://www.iucn.org/themes/ssc/redlists/RLcategories2000.html), and each specialist group was asked to reassess its species classifications, based on the revised criteria, by 2003. In addition, guidelines for documentation of species assessments were distributed.

Concurrently, a member of the MTSG, Dr. Nicholas Mrosovsky, and under a  newly established Petitions system (see http://iucn.org/themes/ssc/redlists/petitions.html), challenged the “Endangered” classification of the green turtle, as well as that of several other marine turtle species. In order to analyze the challenge, the SSC requested that justifications for the listings be prepared on the basis of data available through 1994 and the 1994 criteria. In October, 2001, the ruling by the Standards and Petitions Subcommittee of the Red List Program, based on the information provided in the challenge and the MTSG’s justification, affirmed the 1995 listing of the green turtle, with minor comments.

In addition, the SSC had directed the MTSG to reassess each of the species under the 2000 Red List Criteria.  Please note that one of the issues raised in the challenge to the earlier listings was whether a species could be considered endangered when one or more populations appear to be doing well, or that there are increasing or stable populations in recent times. The Red List Program is clear that, while guidelines have been developed for assessing regional and national populations, species must first be assessed on a global basis for inclusion in the Red List, and this evaluation needs to be derived on the basis of trends over 3 generations and take into account the relative historical sizes of populations under evaluation.

To address the difficulties in assessing species with widely distributed populations that may exhibit various levels of extinction risk, such as marine turtles, in June, 2001, long after the justification of the 1995 listing had been submitted, the Standards and Petitions Subcommittee also provided the MTSG with Guidelines for the Assessment of Widely Distributed Taxa.  To our knowledge, these guidelines have had little review or consultation from Specialists Groups dealing with widely distributed species, and the MTSG is the first to use them. Indeed, the Red List Program has recently requested comments on problems in their application.

With these notes in mind, we request that you review the Draft Green Turtle Status Reassessment provided in the web site.  In addition to the draft assessment (2 files in PDF format), we have posted the following files for further reference:

• 2000 IUCN Red List Criteria,
• the Guidelines for the Assessment of  Widely Distributed Taxa, and
• the Ruling of the IUCN Red List Standards and Petitions Subcommittee on Petitions Against the 1996 Listings of Four Marine Turtle Species.

We ask that you focus your comments on substantive issues of content or interpretation, such as the existence of important information that inadvertently has been overlooked, or an alternative interpretation of the data.  In addition, given that the Guidelines for the Assessment of Widely Distributed Taxa are new and have not been widely used, we also invite comments on their appropriateness and applicability to the assessment of marine turtles.

Finally, in order to assess the MTSG’s new Web-based approach to reviewing documents like this, we request that you also complete and submit the review form also available from the web site.

Debby Crouse
Red List Focal Point and Chair
IUCN Marine Turtle Specialist Group
e-mail: Debby_Crouse@fws.gov
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To proceed to downloads of  2002 Green Turtle Draft Assessment
and Reference Documents, please click here