coral ouch In the latest update of its Red List of Threatened Species, the World Conservation Union (IUCN) highlights the accelerated disappearance of several marine species, including corals and dugongs – a marine mammal.

“Marine species face a storm of threats”, exclaimed Jane Smart, director of the IUCN Center for Science and Data, on Friday. From Montreal (Canada), she presented the institution’s latest report on the occasion of the 15th World Summit (COP15) on biodiversity. Key pressures on ocean life include: overfishing, poaching, climate change and pollution.

“We must reduce pressure, overexploitation, overfishing and carbon emissions because coral reefs are very important to our ecosystems and we are losing them,” warns David Obura, leader of the Coral Group at the IUCN. Diseases, spread by international trade or triggered by toxic industrial discharges into the sea, have a profound impact on these fragile ecosystems.

For example, the hard coral has just joined the 9,250 other species classified as “Critically Endangered”; a very famous dish, 54 species of abalone are now threatened with extinction; Victim of accidental capture, there are only a thousand adult dugongs left between East Africa and New Caledonia, written down red list reissue. “Strengthening community-managed fisheries and enhancing career opportunities outside of fisheries are key in East Africa, where marine ecosystems are fundamental to food security and people’s livelihoods.”, explains Evan Trotuk of the IUCN. The collapse of living organisms directly threatens populations in several parts of the world.

The presentation of this report at the culmination of COP15 aims in particular to alert negotiators to the need to reach an agreement. ambitious in the name of life and the people who depend on it”Words from Jane Smart.

Powered by 15,000 scientists and 1,400 organizations who “Red List of Threatened Species” The IUCN is one of the most comprehensive biodiversity databases available. Accordingly, 42,000 of the 150,000 species of animals, plants or fungi listed (28%) are more or less threatened with extinction in the long term.