Kerala Launches India's First Red List Assessment of Ecosystems: Measuring Which Habitats Could Collapse
The Kerala State Biodiversity Board (KSBB) has launched a Red List Assessment of Ecosystems (RLE) project. It is the first such project by any Indian state.
The project uses the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems framework. This framework checks whole habitats (not single species) against five standard criteria to measure their risk of "collapse" (losing their natural character for good).
The one-year study is funded by the KSBB. It is being carried out by the Kerala Forest Research Institute and a research centre at MES Asmabi College. It covers all 14 districts, from mountain tops to the coast.
Kerala's tropical riparian evergreen forests (forests along river banks) in the southern Western Ghats have lost about 83% of their area over the past century. This is because of dams, invasive plantations and climate extremes. They have been assessed as Critically Endangered under IUCN criteria and could collapse within 20 to 40 years.
Other habitats at risk include Myristica swamps (freshwater swamp forests), shola-grassland mosaics of the high hills and coastal mangroves.
The project will produce a Risk Register, an Ecosystem Typology Atlas (a map-based catalogue of ecosystem types) and restoration priority maps. These will be given to local Biodiversity Management Committees and panchayats for planning. A species red list for the state is being prepared alongside.
IUCN Red List Categories
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is the world's best-known list of how close each plant and animal species is to extinction. Experts place each species in one of nine categories, from "Least Concern" to "Extinct". The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) also runs a sister tool, the Red List of Ecosystems (RLE). The RLE does the same job for whole habitats, such as a forest type, a swamp or a coral reef. Instead of asking "will this species go extinct?", it asks "will this ecosystem collapse?"
Kerala is using the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems criteria, the habitat-level cousin of the species Red List, to assess its forests, swamps, grasslands and mangroves. Its riparian evergreen forests have already been rated Critically Endangered. This moves conservation from saving single species to saving whole landscapes.
Biological Diversity Act, 2002
The Biological Diversity Act, 2002 is India's main law for protecting the variety of life (plants, animals, microbes) and the knowledge that local people hold about them. It controls who can take India's biological resources and use them for research or business. It also makes sure that the people and communities who protected these resources get a fair share of the profits. To do all this, it set up a three-level system: a national authority, a board in every state and a committee in every local body.
The Red List of Ecosystems project is being run by the Kerala State Biodiversity Board, a body created under this Act. Its results will be handed to Biodiversity Management Committees, the local tier of the same law, so that panchayats can plan restoration and protect natural barriers against floods and landslides.
- First Red List Assessment of Ecosystems by an Indian state: Kerala, run by the Kerala State Biodiversity Board
- Project length: one year; covers all 14 districts of Kerala
- Executing bodies: Kerala Forest Research Institute and the Centre for Ecology, Taxonomy, Conservation and Climate Change at MES Asmabi College
- Tropical riparian evergreen forests of the southern Western Ghats in Kerala: about 83% lost over the past century; rated Critically Endangered; possible collapse in 20 to 40 years
- Other threatened habitats: Myristica swamps, shola-grassland mosaics, coastal mangroves
- IUCN Red List of Ecosystems: 5 criteria (A to E), 8 categories (Collapsed to Not Evaluated); adopted as a global standard in 2014
- Outputs: Risk Register, Ecosystem Typology Atlas, ecorestoration priority maps, shared with BMCs and panchayats