A not evaluated (NE)

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

is one which has been categorized under the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biol ...

of threatened species as not yet having been assessed by the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of nat ...

. This conservation category is one of nine IUCN threat assessment categories for species to indicate their risk of global extinction. The categories range from 'extinct' (EX) at one end of the spectrum, to ‘least concern’ (LC) at the other. The categories ‘data deficient’ and 'not evaluated' (NE) are not on the spectrum, because they indicate species that have not been reviewed enough to assign to a category. The category of 'not evaluated' does not indicate that a species is not at risk of extinction, but simply that the species has not yet been studied for any risk to be quantified and published. The IUCN advises that species categorised as 'not evaluated' ''"...should not be treated as if they were non-threatened. It may be appropriate . . . to give them the same degree of attention as threatened taxa, at least until their status can be assessed."''. By 2015, the IUCN had assessed and allocated conservation statuses to over 76,000 species worldwide. From these it had categorised some 24,000 species as globally threatened at one conservation level or another. However, despite estimates varying widely as to the number of species existing on Earth (ranging from 3 million up to 30 million), this means the IUCN's 'not evaluated' (NE) category is by far the largest of all nine extinction risk categories.

Other applications

The global IUCN assessment and categorization process has subsequently been applied at country and sometimes at regional levels as the basis for assessing conservation threats and for establishing individual Red Data lists for those areas. Assessment criteria have also begun to be applied as a way of categorizing threats to ecosystems, with every

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syste ...

falling into the IUCN category ' not evaluated' prior to the start of the assessment process.

Notes and references

{{Threatened species Biota by conservation status IUCN Red List

Other applications

See also

Notes and references