The 2010 Red List of Finnish species

	Drawing Terhi Ryttäri

The fourth assessment of threatened species in Finland has been published December 1, 2010.

The assessment of threatened species is made every tenth year in Finland. The assessment work took four years and is now finished. The results of the assessment was presented and handed over to the Minister of the Environment on December 1, 2010. 

Press releases

• New evaluation - one in ten Finnish species still threatened
• No great change in the threat status of mammals
• An increasing number of birds threatened
• Good and bad news from the world of beetles
• Vascular plants increasingly threatened - conservation also generating results
• Lichens declining at an increasing rate

Publication 

The Red List 2010 is available as a web publication both in Finnish and English. 

• The 2010 Red List of Finnish Species (Ministry of the Environment) The page is in Finnish, but the publication is both in Finnish and English and in two parts. Please click the pdf-files.

The main results

The current estimated number of species in Finland is at least 45,000. Sufficient information was available for the evaluation of 21,398 species or lower taxa, which is approximately 47% of all species. In total, 2,247 species or lower taxa (10.5%) were classified as threatened. The red-listed species, which, in addition to threatened species, include the species classified as Regionally Extinct, Near Threatened, and Data Deficient, total 4,960 (23.2%). 

Of the species evaluated, 313 were classified as Critically Endangered (CR), 726 as Endangered (EN), 1,208 as Vulnerable (VU), 1,867 as Near Threatened (NT), 514 as Data Deficient (DD), 332 as Regionally Extinct (RE), and 16,438 as of Least Concern (LC).

The majority of threatened species live in forests (36.2%) and in rural biotopes and other cultural habitats (22.3%). In comparison with the previous evaluation, the rate of decline of species living in these habitats has slightly decelerated, whereas that of species living in mires, on rock outcrops and shores, and in alpine heath and meadow habitats has accelerated considerably. The number of threatened species is highest in the hemiboreal and southern boreal zones in southern Finland.

Table:

Total number of species found in Finland, number of assessed taxa and number of red-listed taxa by category and organism group, as well as the proportion of threatened and red-listed taxa by organism group (pdf, 397 kb)

The results will be published also on the web. In autumn 2012 the Red List will be opened on the Internet, and is usable through an user interface.

Source

Rassi, P., Hyvärinen, E., Juslén, A. & Mannerkoski, I. (eds.) 2010: 
The 2010 Red List of Finnish Species
Ympäristöministeriö & Suomen ympäristökeskus, Helsinki. 685 p.

Further information

• Conservation Biologist Esko Hyvärinen, Metsähallitus, Natural Heritage Services, Tel.+358 400 208 591, firstname.lastname@metsa.fi
• Senior researcher Ilpo Mannerkoski, Finnish Environment Institute SYKE, Tel. +358 400 148 684, firstname.lastname@ymparisto.fi
• Unit Director Aino Juslén, Finnish Museum of Natural History, Tel. +358 50 310 9703, firstname.lastname@helsinki.fi

Top of the page