A comprehensive assessment of Mexican freshwater ichthyofauna extinction risk under the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria

Authors: Timothy Lyons

Year: 2019

Abstract

Freshwater ecosystems are undervalued and receive insufficient funding, political attention, and protection globally. In order to develop interest and funding for freshwater species conservation, the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Freshwater Biodiversity Unit (FBU) is working to complete a globally comprehensive assessment of freshwater fishes by 2021. As part of this initiative, extinction risk of 536 species of Mexican freshwater fishes were evaluated against the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria, representing the most comprehensive assessment of freshwater biodiversity in Mexico to date. The results of this highly collaborative assessment process reveal that 40% of all extant species assessed are threatened with extinction, and 18.5% are data deficient. The threats to freshwater biodiversity in Mexico are diverse, and threat is not evenly distributed across Mexico. These results can be used to help support the implementation of multilateral environmental agreements in Mexico, guide conservation planning and priority setting at the local and national levels, and will provide a baseline of conservation success in subsequent assessments of extinction risk. Recommended conservation actions include the promotion and development of an integrated Mexican freshwater fish conservation strategy, including directives to further study data deficient species, the planning and establishment of additional freshwater protected areas and environmental safeguards, establishment of species level conservation plans where necessary, identification of suitable candidate species for ex-situ conservation, and planned reevaluation of conservation status to develop a regional Red List Index.