Trends in conservation of the World`s woodpeckers: changes in knowledge, threats, and conservation outlook over the past 25 years.

LAMMERTINK, MARTJAN

Vitoria-Gasteiz

Simposio; International Woodpecker Symposium, Vitoria-Gasteiz, España; 2014

IZKI-LIFE, Union Europea

Taking the first IUCN Red List from 1988 as a starting point, I review trends in threats and conservation of the woodpeckers of the world. Between 1988 and 2013 the number of genuinely Red Listed woodpeckers (categories Near Threatened and up) increased from 20 to 28 species and the number of species in the categories Vulnerable and up from 8 to 12. As percentage of recognised woodpecker species in the different years, the increase in Red Listed woodpecker species was even sharper. The geographical distribution of Red Listed woodpeckers stayed the same, with over half of the species in Latin America, about one quarter in Asia, and none in Europe. Many more splits in woodpecker taxonomy are coming up and additional, newly recognized species will soon be added to the Red List, mostly from Asia.  Nearly all Red Listed woodpecker species on the 2013 list are threatened by habitat clearance. Out of 28 species, 10 are also threatened by selective logging, and these 10 are in higher threat categories. Woodpecker conservation research should focus in particular on the species sensitive to selective logging, to assess their within-habitat requirements and thresholds. The output of research on Red Listed woodpeckers in the past 25 years was heavily skewed to three North American species. I identify 10 priority species to focus woodpecker conservation research on, four from Latin America and six from Asia.