An IUCN Red List critically endangered (CR or CE) species is one that has been classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as having a very high chance of becoming extinct in the wild. As of March 2026, out of 172,620 species listed on the IUCN Red List, 10,774 (about 6.2%) are critically endangered. Of these, 1,406 may already be extinct, and 64 may be extinct in the wild.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also called the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, was created in 1964. It is a list that shows the global conservation status and risk of extinction for different species. Some countries and groups also make Regional Red Lists, which look at the risk of extinction for species in specific areas managed by governments or organizations.
Illegal logging is when people cut down, move, buy, or sell wood without following the law. This can happen in several ways, such as using dishonest methods to enter forests, cutting trees without permission, harvesting wood from protected areas, cutting trees that are not allowed to be cut, or taking more wood than agreed upon. Illegal logging causes serious environmental problems, including the loss of forests, soil erosion, and the loss of many plant and animal species.
Rates and causes of deforestation change from region to region around the world. In 2009, two-thirds of the world’s forests were found in 10 countries: Russia, Brazil, Canada, the United States, China, Australia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Indonesia, India, and Peru. Global deforestation is estimated to cover 13.7 million hectares each year, which is about the same size as the country of Greece.
Deforestation is the process of removing trees and changing forested land into areas used for other purposes, such as farming, ranching, or building cities. Today, about 31% of Earth’s land is covered by forests. This is about one-third less than the amount of forest that existed before large-scale farming began, with half of that loss happening in the last 100 years.
Palm oil, made from the oil palm tree, is an important source of income for many farmers in Southeast Asia, Central and West Africa, and Central America. Growing and producing palm oil (often by planting only one type of crop on land that was once forests storing carbon and home to many plant and animal species) often happens at the same time as serious human rights issues, such as forced labor, child labor, and harm to people and animals. These effects can be major because oil palms provide 38% of the world’s vegetable oil from only 6% of the land used for vegetable oil farming.
The Cardamom Mountains rain forests are a tropical rainforest area in Southeast Asia, as noted by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). This region includes the Cardamom Mountains and Elephant Mountains, as well as nearby coastal areas in eastern Thailand and southwestern Cambodia. It also includes the Vietnamese island of Dao Phu Quoc.
The Congo Basin is the area where the Congo River flows. It is located in Central Africa, in a region called West Equatorial Africa. This area is sometimes called the Congo.
The Amazon Conservation Team (ACT) is a nonprofit organization that partners with indigenous people in tropical South America to protect the Amazon rainforest’s biodiversity and the culture and land of its indigenous communities. ACT was started in 1996 by ethnobotanist Mark Plotkin and Costa Rican conservationist Liliana Madrigal. The group mainly works in the northwest, northeast, and southern parts of the Amazon.
The Amazon rainforest covers an area of 3,000,000 square kilometers (1,200,000 square miles) and is the largest rainforest on Earth. It contains the most diverse tropical rainforest, making up more than half of all rainforests worldwide. The Amazon spans parts of nine countries, with Brazil holding the largest share (60%), followed by Peru (13%), Colombia (10%), and smaller areas in Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia (6%), Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana.