State of Ethiopia’s vertebrate fauna: Implications for implementation of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework

Abstract

Biodiversity status indicators, such as number of threatened species, species population sizes and the Red List Index (RLI), are crucial tools to track changes in the state of biodiversity in response to the success or failure of conservation measures. However, such biodiversity status indicators are rarely incorporated in national biodiversity action plans of many countries, including Ethiopia. In this review article, we aimed to assess the potential use of the aforementioned indicators for biodiversity monitoring in Ethiopia. Specifically, we analysed (i) number of threatened vertebrate species of Ethiopia, (ii) trends in species’ population sizes and (iii) overall trend in the Red List Index (RLI) of threatened species. Results showed that Ethiopia harbours 1,715 vertebrate species, including 188 (11%) endemic species. However, many of them are under unfavourable conservation status: 109 species are globally threatened, and 384 species are experiencing Decreasing trends of population sizes. Furthermore, IUCN red list status of 644 species and trends in population sizes of 243 species have been unknown, with many of these species are endemic to the country. The RLI of species survival for Ethiopia showed a constant trend (i.e., RLI = 0.85) over the last 30 years, indicating that the aggregated extinction risk for threatened vertebrate species in the country is unchanged over time. Overall, this study highlights the potential use of these biodiversity status indicators to track changes in the state of biodiversity of the country in response to conservation efforts. We also identified 128 priority species for urgent research and/or conservation actions.