By Deepu Sivadas on 26 May 2019
IPBES Global Assessment is the hot talk of the hour which projected that 1,000,000 species are threatened with extinction. Here a close look onto the conservation status of species in Indomalayan realm where 5,918 species are of conservation concern.
The Indomalayan Realm’s natural boundaries contain tropical Asia from the Baluchistan mountains of Pakistan eastward to the Indian subcontinent south of the Himalayan crest, including the tropical southern fringe of China with Taiwan, the whole of South East Asia, the Philippines and all lands of Malesia west of Weber’s Line which cuts through the Indonesian archipelago to the east of Sulawesi and Timor. Forest originally covered most of Indomalaya, tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, predominant in much of India and parts of Southeast Asia. Man has had a long and profound impact on the vegetation of tropical Asia and it is here that human populations live at the highest densities.
In light of the recent IPBES Global Assessment, an attempt has made to review the status of species in Indomalayan realm based on our present understanding. As per the recent update of IUCN Redlist, around 5,918 species are of conservation concern of which 4,729 are in different threatened categories. Forty-seven species are already extinct in this region including 20 amphibians and 8 mammals which includes the Caspian Tiger; another 9 species are extinct in wild. Panthera tigris and Panthera leo are regionally extinct in some countries. Of the 18,564 species conservation status known, 588 plant species and 429 animal species are critically endangered, and 420 of which shows a decreasing population trend. When we consider the number of threatened species in countries under this realm, 1003 threatened species are found in India followed by Indonesia with 894 species.
Species extinct from this region
Stats
Threats
Residential and commercial area development followed by the unsustainable use of biological resources is the major threat faced by the species assessed so far, which includes hunting and trapping of terrestrial animals, logging and wood harvesting, fishing and harvesting aquatic resources. When we investigate the habitats of the threatened species, those found in subtropical/tropical moist lowland forests are more threatened followed by those in inland freshwater habitat.
Given the rate in which it changes the conditions in this region because of the anthropogenic effects, it is awful to imagine how many species should have become extinct as the conservation status of a majority of species is not assessed and well documented when we consider the biodiversity richness of this region.
Deepu Sivadas, Ph. D. is a member of IUCN CEM 2017–2020, and Managing Editor of Harnessing Nature. He is Post Doctoral Fellow at Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute, Kerala, India.