About the Red List

A Red List is an account of the risk of species becoming extinct in an area, e.g. a country. The mandate given by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) to the Swedish Species Information Centre is to develop Sweden’s Red List.

Red-listed Species in Sweden 2010 is the third Swedish Red List based on the international accepted criteria from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The Red List assessment evaluates available data from research, environmental monitoring, museums, amateur biologist reports, literature etc. against the internationally formalised criteria.

The red listing of a species according to IUCN’s criteria is completely independent from other criteria such as special reasons for conservation, or whether law, conventions or special intrinsic values cover the species. The IUCN’s criteria only aim to quantify, as objectively as possible, the species’ relative risk of extinction.

The Red List is published in two versions; a book version and a searchable web version on The Swedish Species Information Centres website. Small species of vascular plants (lady’s mantle, blackberry and dandelion) are only present in the web version.