Background and aim
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is widely used globally to guide decision-making around species conservation priorities. Given the importance of the Red List for conservation decision-making, there is a critical need for species to be assessed frequently and comprehensively, including with emerging sources of biodiversity data. Environmental DNA-derived biodiversity data represents an emerging data source for conservation decision-making, but is not currently used to inform the assessment process for the Red List.
This IUCN facilitated workshop will identify opportunities and develop recommendations for the inclusion of eDNA data into the extinction assessment process. It will do so by identifying eDNA datasets that are available for a group of 600+ temperate Australian and New Zealand fish species that are due to be formally assessed for the Red List in August 2025. Data will be provided to the IUCN marine species assessment team for the formal assessment process. The workshop will also involve discussion around providing recommendations for how eDNA should be used to inform future species assessments through the Red List alongside other data sources, and identifying future opportunities.
The end output from this workshop is anticipated to be a Workshop report that will provide direction for the future use of eDNA-derived data for the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, as well as contributing to the Red List assessment of 600+ temperate Australian and New Zealand fish species.
Program
| TIME | ACTIVITY |
| 11.15-11.30 | Welcome with morning tea |
| 11.30-12.30 | Session 1: Introduction and background, general discussion around application of eDNA for Red List |
| 12.30-13.15 | Lunch |
| 13.15-14.45 | Session 2: Deep dive into data availability for 600+ fish species for assessment |
| 14.45-15.00 | Afternoon Tea |
| 15.00-16.15 | Where to from here? Wrap-up, future priorities and opportunity identification. |