Green Status of Species

The IUCN Red List answers one question: how close is this species to extinction? The Green Status of Species answers a different one: how far is it from being fully recovered? It became an optional part of Red List assessments in 2020, and it scores a species against three tests at once. A species is fully recovered when it is present across every part of the range it held before major human impact, when it is viable in each of those parts, and when it is performing its ecological functions there.

The result is a Species Recovery Score from 0 to 100 percent, reported with a named band such as Largely Depleted. The standard is ambitious by design, and the IUCN does not expect every species to reach full recovery, because large areas of former range have been converted for human use. The score is reported alongside four conservation metrics: what past action achieved, what would be lost if action stopped, what the next ten years of planned action should add, and how much recovery would still be possible at best.