As concerns are rising over the natural environment, we often hear about Red Data Books. These are the data books that list threatened wildlife species and explain their inhabiting situations. Since the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) issued the first list of endangered wild animals in 1966, many countries around the world have compiled their domestic versions of Red Data Books. In Japan, the Ministry of Environment put together the first Red Data Book for animals in 1991 and has subsequently issued several Red Data Books both for animals and plants. In addition, each municipality has been actively engaged in making their own versions of Red Data Books that cover the information the national versions cannot keep track of such as the detailed distributions of each species, existence of local types, surviving situations for threatened species, and the preservation levels of local ecosystems, etc. These local versions have been used as the basic reference materials for the “conservation of biological diversity.”

Meanwhile, “Red Lists” are the excerpted lists of endangered species from Red Data Books or the individually-disclosed lists whereas Red Data Books are the books composed of such lists AND information about the inhabiting situations of the listed species, etc. Click here for the Red Data Books and Lists issued by Japan’s Ministry of Environm

The categories in the Red Lists of Japan’s Ministry of Environment basically correspond to the IUCN’s but the Japanese versions also have their own categories because there are many species without sufficient evaluation data in Japan. The following is a list of categories for brackish water and freshwater fish species:

•As for the category of Threatened I (CR+EN), Threatened IA Critically Endangered (CR) represents species that face an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild in the near future, corresponding to the IUCN’s most threatened category, CR. Threatened IB Endangered (EN) stands for species that also face a risk of extinction in the wild in the near future but are not as endangered as those listed in Threatened IA. Taimen fall into the Threatened IB Endangered (EN) category. Other species listed in this category include round crucian carp (Carassius buergeri grandoculis) and Japanese crucian carp (Carassius cuvieri) that live in Lake Biwa.

IUCN, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature was established in 1948 with its headquarters located in Gland, Switzerland. Its membership is composed of nations, governmental agencies such as the Ministry of Environment, and private organizations that are engaged in nature conservation activities. IUCN’s work is supported by a volunteer network consisting of approximately 10,000 scientists from about 181 countries. It aims to influence, encourage and assist societies around the world to protect the integrity and diversity of nature necessary for human life, and to ensure the fair, equitable and appropriate use of natural resources in a sustainable manner. IUCN’s activities range from calling for protection of endangered species by compiling Red Data Books for them to advancing processes of making international conventions in order to conserve nature such as the Ramsar Convention and the Washington Convention, etc.