GIS Unit projects - species conservation

Find out more about our projects in the area of plant species conservation.

Red Listing

Red Lists are widely used to indicate species at risk of extinction. Kew's GIS Unit has pioneered the development of tools that facilitate the process of Red Listing by integrating specimen collection and powerful GIS analysis.

Red Listing - more about this project

Interactive map - IUCN Sampled Red List Index for Plants

One in five of the world's plant species is threatened with extinction

The IUCN Sampled Red List Index (SRLI) for Plants, is a major baseline for plant conservation and is the first time that the true extent of the threat to the world’s estimated 380,000 plant species is known. This global analysis of extinction risk for the world's plants, conducted by Kew together with the Natural History Museum, London and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), has revealed that the world’s plants are as threatened as mammals, with one in five of the world’s plant species threatened with extinction.

IUCN Sampled Red List Index for Plants - more about this project

GeoCAT home page

GeoCAT - Geospatial Conservation Assessment Tool

This tool is designed to produce rapid species level conservation assessments based on IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria (IUCN 2001). Through an easy to use interface with a familiar Google Map underlay you can upload primary occurrence data for a species and at the click of a button calculate values relating to the geographic range of a species.

GeoCAT - more about this project

Conservation assessment levels

The Conservation Assessment Tracking System

Kew performs around 2,000 conservation assessments every year.The Conservation Assessment Tracking System (CATS) is developed to streamline the process of gathering, managing and disseminating this data to get maximum impact for conservation. CATS - more about this project