Implementation of the evaluation in Finland

The Red List 2019 is the third Finnish assessment of threatened species that complies with the IUCN guidelines and is comparable with the previous assessments. A national guide, published in 2017, was prepared for the assessment work on the basis of the IUCN guidelines.

The work was supervised by the Steering Group for Evaluation of Threatened Species (LAUHA), appointed by the Ministry of Environment. In total, 18 organism expert groups assessed the threat status of Finnish species in 2017–2018. The organism expert groups consist of our best species experts, researchers in nature conservation and administration, conservators and researchers in natural history museums and staff in research institutes. Volunteer contribution has been given by retired personnel and experienced amateurs. As in the previous evaluation, two further organism expert groups were established for fish and mammals to supplement the 16 permanent expert groups. The assessments for fish were carried out by the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), and mammalian assessments were requested from the Finnish Mammalogical Society.

Approximately 180 experts from universities, natural history museums, the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), Metsähallitus and the Finnish Mammalogical Society participated in the evaluation. The assessment work was coordinated by the Finnish Environment Institute