Fact sheets

Our Fact sheets are summaries of data or knowledge representing information in a quick, easy, and clear manner. They are free for use for educational and non-commercial purposes, provided due credit is given: ©IUCN-Med.

Mediterranean MPAs providing NbS for climate change

mediterranean_mpas_and_nbs_ Photo: Interreg Mediterranean Interreg Med MPA-Adapt factsheet. This factsheet explains the concept of Nature-based Solutions for climate change adaptation and mitigation, while exploring it can be applied in the Mediterranean. It belongs to a series of climate change factsheets specifically developed to keep Mediterranean MPA managers informed.

Factsheet: Mediterranean MPAs providing NbS for climate change

Impact of Sea Level Rise on MPAs

Photo: MPA Adapt

Interreg Med MPA-Adapt factsheet. This factsheet presents the most recent data about sea level rise, to show what is happening and is likely to happen, and how it can affect Mediterranean MPAs and its ecosystems. It belongs to a series of climate change factsheets specifically developed to keep Mediterranean MPA managers informed.

Factsheet: Impact of Sea Level Rise on MPAs

Acidification and Marine Protected Areas

Photo: factsheet2

Interreg Med MPA-Adapt factsheet. This factsheet presents the most recent data on acidification, to show what is happening and is likely to happen, and how it can affect Mediterranean MPAs and its ecosystems. It belongs to a series of climate change factsheets specifically developed to keep Mediterranean MPA managers informed.

Factsheet: Acidification and Marine Protected Areas

Climate Change in the Mediterranean Snapshot: Impact of Storm Surges on MPAs

factsheet3 Photo: MPA Adapt Interreg Med MPA-Adapt factsheet. This factsheet presents the most recent data on storm surges, to show what is happening and is likely to happen, and how it can affect Mediterranean MPAs and its ecosystems. It belongs to a series of climate change factsheets specifically developed to keep Mediterranean MPA managers informed.

Factsheet: Climate Change in the Mediterranean Snapshot: Impact of Storm Surges on MPAs

Blue Carbon and Marine Protected Areas

factsheet4 Photo: MPA Adapt Interreg Med MPA-Adapt factsheet. This factsheet presents the most recent data on blue carbon, to show what is happening and is likely to happen, and how it can interact Mediterranean MPAs and its ecosystems. It belongs to a series of climate change factsheets specifically developed to keep Mediterranean MPA managers informed.

Factsheet: Blue Carbon and Marine Protected Areas

Impact of Warming Air and Sea Temperature on MPAs

factsheet5 Photo: MPA Adapt Interreg Med MPA-Adapt factsheet. This factsheet presents the most recent data on the impact of warming aire and sea temperature, to show what is happening and is likely to happen, and how it can affect Mediterranean MPAs and its ecosystems. It belongs to a series of climate change factsheets specifically developed to keep Mediterranean MPA managers informed.

Factsheet: Impact of Warming Air and Sea Temperature on MPAs

The noble pen shell (Pinna nobilis) now Critically Endangered

Pinna nobilis factsheet Photo: IUCN-Med

Pinna nobilis is a long-lived Mediterranean endemic species, considered one of the biggest bivalve molluscs in the Mediterranean Sea. A mass mortality event affecting Pinna nobilis populations was first detected in 2016 along the Spanish coast

Factsheet:
English: The noble pen shell (Pinna nobilis) now Critically Endangered
Français : La Grande Nacre désormais en danger critique :

Photo: IUCN-Med Programas de inventariación y seguimiento de especies amenazadas/ Programmes de recherche et de suivi pour les espèces menacées

Los programas de seguimiento permiten conocer el estado de conservación de las especies mediante la evaluación periódica de sus poblaciones y la cartografía de su distribución actual. Version en españon/français

Antelopes of North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula

Antilopes FS

New fact sheet to help conserve antelope species that occur naturally in North Africa and Arabia in order to preserve their genetic integrity and keep them apart.

Antelopes of North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula

Antilopes de l’Afrique du Nord et de la Péninsule arabique

ظباء شمال أفريقيا وشبه الجزيرة العربية

The IUCN Red List of seahorses and pipefishes in the Mediterranean Sea

For the first time,14 seahorses, pipefishes, and snipefishes native to the Mediterranean Sea were assessed for the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Factsheet: The IUCN Red List of seahorses and pipefishes in the Mediterranean Sea

Mediterranean sharks, rays and chimaeras

The 2016 regional assessment of the Mediterranean Sea includes 73 species of sharks, rays and chimaeras. At least 53% of the sharks, rays and chimaeras native to the Mediterranean Sea are still at risk of extinction, and urgent action to conserve their populations and habitats is required, according to the new Red List of sharks, rays and chimaeras in the Mediterranean Sea.

Brochure - Red List of sharks, rays and chimaeras in the Mediterranean Sea.

Mediterranean Anthozoans

136 species of Anthozoans natives to the Mediterranean Sea have been assessed for the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
Nearly 13% are threatened and more than half of the species lack enough information to estimate their risk of extinction.
The document was presented at the 19th Conference of the Parties to the Barcelona Convention in February 2016.

Factsheet: Mediterranean anthozoans

Fact sheets for the North Africa Regional Conservation Forum

IUCN’s North Africa Regional Conservation Forum was held in Cairo (Egypt) from October 4th to 6th 2015.

Here you will find a series of fact sheets that IUCN-Med designed for its social media accounts: IUCNMed (Facebook) and IUCN_Med (Twitter), which include:

What is a Key Biodiversity Area?
Freshwater KBAs in Northern Africa
IUCN Members in North Africa
Information about North African IUCN Commission Experts
Northern Africa freshwater fish
Northern Africa freshwater plants
Northern Africa freshwater molluscs
Northern Africa dragonflies
Northern Africa freshwater biodiversity

Fact sheets of cetaceans and marine turtles in the Alboran sea

The Alboran Sea is one of the richest biodiversity points in the Mediterranean Sea, but at the same time, it is one of the busiest shipping routes. The IUCN Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation IUCN has just published 9 fact sheets of cetacean and 5 of marine turtles that frequent the waters of the Alboran Sea. These fact sheets aim at describing the current knowledge about these species in the Alboran Sea and their fragile status of conservation.

Available only in Spanish and French.

Nature at risk in the EU: National analysis of the European Red List

Which EU Member State hosts the highest proportion of species threatened at the European level? This series of Fact Sheets by IUCN presents the proportion of species which are threatened at the European level in each of the 27 Member States of the European Union (May 2013).

IUCN has carried out a national analysis of the data of the European Red List which to date has assessed around 6,000 European species (mammals, reptiles, amphibians, freshwater fishes, butterflies, dragonflies, and selected groups of beetles, molluscs, and vascular plants). The new analysis gives a detailed overview of species threatened at the European level in each EU Member State. It shows that the highest share of species threatened in the EU can be found in the Mediterranean region which hosts most of Europe’s biodiversity.

Data show alarming declines in Europe's biodiversity which requires increased conservation efforts by the EU and the Member States, if they are to achieve the EU 2020 Biodiversity Strategy which they all committed to in 2011.

Read about each EU Member State's threatened species by clicking on the following links:

Cyprus biodiversity

France's biodiversity

Greece's biodiversity

Italy's Biodiversity

Malta's biodiversity

Portugal's Biodiversity

Spain's Biodiversity

The present analysis does not provide information on the status of the species at the national level (i.e. in each individual country), but rather on the level of threat for species groups at the European level (i.e. across the whole European continent, but excluding the EU overseas entities). National and sub-national Red Lists can be cross-checked to identify the status of species at the national level.