Impact of an IUCN national Red List of threatened flora on scientific attention

Red Lists are thought to attract attention to the conservation of threatened species. Determining the impact of these lists on the attention of scientists is a matter of consequence for biodiversity conservation. We evaluated trends in mentions of Brazilian angiosperm plants in the biodiversity cons...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: RS Andrade, L Freitas
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Inter-Research 2021-11-01
Series:Endangered Species Research
Online Access:https://www.int-res.com/abstracts/esr/v46/p175-184/
_version_ 1818332405215264768
author RS Andrade
L Freitas
author_facet RS Andrade
L Freitas
author_sort RS Andrade
collection DOAJ
description Red Lists are thought to attract attention to the conservation of threatened species. Determining the impact of these lists on the attention of scientists is a matter of consequence for biodiversity conservation. We evaluated trends in mentions of Brazilian angiosperm plants in the biodiversity conservation literature and tested the effect of the Red List of Brazilian Flora (RLBF) publication on these mentions. We collected mentions in the literature available in Google Scholar from the years 1990-2020, for 2449 Brazilian angiosperm species assessed in different IUCN categories. We used a Bayesian structural time-series method to test the effect of the RLBF publication on the number of mentions for the set of species in the IUCN categories, angiosperm families, and plants of commercial interest. The results showed a gap in mentions for many threatened and Data Deficient species in the scientific literature. We also found that the mentions were biased toward species of commercial interest and were unrelated to their threat status. Publication of the RLBF positively affected the number of mentions for IUCN threat categories and for more than half of the angiosperm families. These results were obtained after a few species of commercial interest were excluded from each treated group. This study suggests that the Red List assessments are essential to determine priorities for resource allocation to scientific activities. However, this effect was not sufficient to reduce the bias in scientific attention. Our findings support the need to stimulate more effective programs to fund research on threatened plant species.
first_indexed 2024-12-13T13:35:13Z
format Article
id doaj.art-ca43cd956a804b72bacbfb0122ece8ba
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 1863-5407
1613-4796
language English
last_indexed 2024-12-13T13:35:13Z
publishDate 2021-11-01
publisher Inter-Research
record_format Article
series Endangered Species Research
spelling doaj.art-ca43cd956a804b72bacbfb0122ece8ba2022-12-21T23:43:54ZengInter-ResearchEndangered Species Research1863-54071613-47962021-11-014617518410.3354/esr01154Impact of an IUCN national Red List of threatened flora on scientific attentionRS Andrade0L Freitas1Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro, CEP 20460-030, Rio de Janeiro, BrazilJardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro, CEP 20460-030, Rio de Janeiro, BrazilRed Lists are thought to attract attention to the conservation of threatened species. Determining the impact of these lists on the attention of scientists is a matter of consequence for biodiversity conservation. We evaluated trends in mentions of Brazilian angiosperm plants in the biodiversity conservation literature and tested the effect of the Red List of Brazilian Flora (RLBF) publication on these mentions. We collected mentions in the literature available in Google Scholar from the years 1990-2020, for 2449 Brazilian angiosperm species assessed in different IUCN categories. We used a Bayesian structural time-series method to test the effect of the RLBF publication on the number of mentions for the set of species in the IUCN categories, angiosperm families, and plants of commercial interest. The results showed a gap in mentions for many threatened and Data Deficient species in the scientific literature. We also found that the mentions were biased toward species of commercial interest and were unrelated to their threat status. Publication of the RLBF positively affected the number of mentions for IUCN threat categories and for more than half of the angiosperm families. These results were obtained after a few species of commercial interest were excluded from each treated group. This study suggests that the Red List assessments are essential to determine priorities for resource allocation to scientific activities. However, this effect was not sufficient to reduce the bias in scientific attention. Our findings support the need to stimulate more effective programs to fund research on threatened plant species.https://www.int-res.com/abstracts/esr/v46/p175-184/
spellingShingle RS Andrade
L Freitas
Impact of an IUCN national Red List of threatened flora on scientific attention
Endangered Species Research
title Impact of an IUCN national Red List of threatened flora on scientific attention
title_full Impact of an IUCN national Red List of threatened flora on scientific attention
title_fullStr Impact of an IUCN national Red List of threatened flora on scientific attention
title_full_unstemmed Impact of an IUCN national Red List of threatened flora on scientific attention
title_short Impact of an IUCN national Red List of threatened flora on scientific attention
title_sort impact of an iucn national red list of threatened flora on scientific attention
url https://www.int-res.com/abstracts/esr/v46/p175-184/
work_keys_str_mv AT rsandrade impactofaniucnnationalredlistofthreatenedfloraonscientificattention
AT lfreitas impactofaniucnnationalredlistofthreatenedfloraonscientificattention