IUCN: Measures Against Insect Decline
The IUCN presents its updated Red List. For the first time, dragonflies and other insects have been comprehensively assessed. 16% of dragonfly species are threatened.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature IUCN published the current International Red List on 9 December 2021.
Over 40,000 Species Threatened
Of the 142,500 animal and plant species assessed in total, more than 40,000 fall into threatened categories — more than ever before. For the first time, dragonflies were included in the assessment. According to the findings, 16% of the approximately 6,000 dragonfly species are endangered or threatened with extinction.
The main reasons cited are the destruction of wetlands as well as pesticides and other chemicals in waterways, the IUCN reported on Thursday in Gland, near Geneva. Wetlands are disappearing three times faster than forests.
A Wake-Up Call Against Insect Decline
The new figures from the International Red List on the decline of dragonflies are — once again — a wake-up call that something must finally be done about the worldwide and domestic insect decline. Above all, it is essential to reduce the lack of structural diversity and the use of pesticides in fields and plantations across the board and as quickly as possible, before the last dragonfly and the last bee disappear from our meadows.
Agricultural policy in the coming years must ensure that, instead of agrarian wastelands, diverse and varied cultural landscapes with hedgerows, wildflower strips, and small water bodies are once again created. Beyond that, after years of deadlock, we finally need a national peatland protection strategy worthy of the name. The goal must be to preserve and restore these treasuries of life.
Dragonflies are flying jewels and true masters of flight. Only where we still have untouched biotopes — or can restore them — can species-rich dragonfly communities survive and spread out to colonise new areas.
More on the subject of recreational hunting: In our dossiers on recreational hunting gather fact-checks, analyses and background reports. The scientific evidence is presented in the overview Studies on the Effects of Recreational Hunting.
The position of IG Wild beim Wild: IG Wild beim Wild rejects recreational hunting. Our model is the canton of Geneva, which has managed without recreational hunting since 1974: without hunting seasons, without hunting dogs, without driven hunts, without high seats, without the animal cruelty and crime that go hand in hand with hunting season elsewhere. What has worked there for over fifty years disproves every position paper by JagdSchweiz. An association that bases its policy on claims it refutes in its own documents is not a professional organisation, but a factory for misinformation.
