…and if it fails, we will fail too. So when a Red List like this raises the alarm, the implications for our ecosystems and for our own future are clear. This is a worrying decline.”
So said EU Environment Commissioner Janez Potočnik on last month’s release of the European Red List, highlighting species threatened by climate change and habitat loss across the continent. With nearly a third of Europe’s butterflies in decline, along with unique beetles and dragonflies—such as today’s Endangered All-Star, the beautiful Greek Red Damsel—in decline, the IUCN, or International Union for the Conservation of Nature, hopes that the Red List will bring concentrated attention to the need to stem biodiversity loss. The Greek Red Damsel now occupies only seven sites in the mountains of Greece.
To see more on the European Red List and to view a Gallery of photos, check out the IUCN’s press release.