More than half of endangered species in France are not protected: report

RFI
·1-min read

More than half of endangered animal and plant species in France are not adequately protected, according to a new report by a French environmental research body.

The French Committee of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) says 56 percent of animal and plant species (1,610 out of 2,857) threatened with extinction in France are not listed in any protection order.

Martine Bigan, president of the commission of conservation of species of the French Committee of the IUCN says the protection of biodiversity in France is "insufficient and partial".

The organisation is calling for a strengthening of measures to respect the environmental commitments made at the COP15 Biodiversity summit in Montreal in 2022.

While all amphibians and almost all threatened mammals and reptiles are subject to protection measures, spiders, sharks and sting rays have been left off lists in France, the IUCN wrote in a report released on Thursday.

Protecting habitats is crucial

Fish, invertebrates and plants are only protected "in small proportions, because they are not on the conservation radar," Florian Kirschner, from the IUCN told France Info.

But he warns that protection alone of the species themselves doesn't solve all the problems.

"What is essential is to stop pollution or overfishing or land development that destroys valuable natural habitats," he says.


Read more on RFI English

Read also:
Green groups denounce 'flawed' French plan to save emblematic forest bird
Endangered brown bears bounce back in the French Pyrenees
Green credentials at stake as EU scrambles to save nature restoration law

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