About Red List

The Red List is the material prepared by IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) classifying various threatened wild animals of the world and reporting their present habitat status.
The List evaluates the extinction risk level of each individual species from a biological viewpoint, but it possesses no legal power to enforce regulations concerning threatened species. The Red List is broadly employed as fundamental information in advancing the preservation of threatened wild animals.
Referring to the original Red List, the Environment Agency of Japan has compiled the Japanese edition of the List listing threatened taxa inhabiting Japan.

2000 EDITION of the RED LIST CATEGORIES are classified as follows:
EXTINCT	EX	A taxon whose last individual has died.
EXTINCT IN THE WILD	EW	A taxon whose last individual in the wild has died.
CRITICALLY ENDANGERED	CR	A taxon facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the immediate futuree.
ENDANGERED	EN	A taxon facing a very high risk of extinction in the near future though not critically endangered.
VULNERABLE	VU	A taxon facing a high risk of extinction in the wild in the medium-term future though not critically endangered or endangered.
LOWER RISK	LR	A taxon which does not satisfy the criteria for any of the categories, CRITICALLY ENDANGERED, ENDANGERED or VULNERABLE at the current time, but needs continual protection.
DATA DEFICIENT	DD	A taxon which may be in danger of extinction, but is unable to be classified in any category due to a deficiency of data.

About the Red List and its categories.