I want to take this opportunity to give a round of applause to the iNaturalist team and any other role players involved in implementing these status updates for each relevant observation (see below screenshots)
This is something I have been wanting for quite a while, so Kudos!
I haven’t checked to see if this update extends to species listed as DDD (Data Deficient), maybe someone who has posted such a species can advise?
I’m just wondering if:
This update plans to cover a comprehensive list of countries or regionally based Biodiversity and threat assesment agencies? (in other words not just South Africa)
Other users from outside South Africa can see our observation statuses as we see them?
Please feel free to bring up any other points relating to this :)
We used statuses curated by folks from SANBI (@tonyrebelo and others) to extensively update the South African taxa that have ZA Red List statuses and/or IUCN Red List statuses. They advised which species should have open or obscured taxon geoprivacy. Many species that were obscured by global IUCN Red List statuses were “opened” based on ZA statuses.
Some Data Deficient species were included in this update.
The iNaturalist team can help with large-scale additions of conservation statuses following a spreadsheet template. If requested, is almost always a substantial data wrangling effort on the part of the person providing the status information. We don’t have the capacity to proactively try to cover all parts of the world. Most often these additions happen in the context of onboarding new members of the iNaturalist Network.
Yes, anyone looking at observations with an associated conservation status will see the badge next to the taxon name and can get more information by clicking (example). This is true whether you’re looking at it from inaturalist.org, inaturalist.nz, inaturalist.ca, etc.
I’m referring to the badges that now appear next to the species name in observations. Until fairly recently, they weren’t there (see pics for reference)
Just please note.
There are two independent processes here:
The Red List status.
With over 70% of southern African species endemic to the area, The IUCN Red List and the South African Red List are usually the same. Only 20% of South African Red List stati have been uploaded onto the IUCN Red List due to logistical constraints.
Note too that the South African Red List site shown above is out of date and a new site has been developed and is being tested.
Sensitive Species
Having a Red List status does not require obscuration. Species to be obscured are from the South African Sensitive Species List, which is an independent process. To qualify the species must be threatened by an activity where knowledge of the locality might influence the threat - such as poaching, picking, hunting or collecting. Species threatened by agriculture, afforestation, climate change, fire regimes, alien invasive species or rangeland management do not need to be obscured, no matter how threatened they are.
** There are still a few species that are Open in South Africa, but Obscured on iNat based on the IUCN Red List, that are endemic to South Africa, and these need attention. Not many, but we are working on these.
