ABSCH Genetic Resources Information Center

NIBR announced that the revised Red Data Book of the Republic of Korea is released on 7 July 2021. The revised version covers the current status of 601 mammals and vascular plants listed on the first edition of the Korean Red Lists, which were published in 2012.  

The revised book includes updated and comprehensive information on the 601 species through monitoring and estimating their distributions and populations in Korea since they have been first listed. The 601 species consists of 47 mammals and 554 vascular plants, accounting for 37.6% of the 125 Korean mammals and 12% of 4,596 Korean vascular plants under the National Red List of Species of Korea respectively. 

The assessment and review were conducted under the Guidelines for Using the IUCN’s regional Red List Categories and Criteria. As a result, the 14 mammals and 188 vascular plants are categorized as Critically Endangered (CR), Endangered (EN), and Vulnerable (VU). 

Among the other 33 mammals, 5 are categorized as Regionally (RE) and 1 mammal is Near Threatened (NT), 18 are Least Concern (LC), 6 are Data Deficient (DD), and 2 are Not Evaluated (NE).

In comparison with the 2012 Red List, the number of listed species decreased from 240 to 202 this year. NIBR analyzed that the decreasing trends came from the abundant monitoring data reported by different national agencies* since 2012. Therefore, some species once known as highly endangered are updated as not threatened anymore and out of the endangered species categories based on the newly compiled data.  

*Nationwide monitoring of the threatened species has been conducted by NIBR, National Institute of Ecology, Korea National Park Service, and Korea Forest Service.

The revised book will be distributed to relevant government agencies, research institutions, and major libraries nationwide. It is now available at NIBR’s website (www.nibr.go.kr) in PDF format.