European Red List of Grasshoppers, Crickets and Bush-crickets

The European Red List is a review of the conservation status of European species according to IUCN regional Red Listing guidelines. It identifies those species that are threatened with extinction at the regional level, so that appropriate conservation action can be taken to improve their status. This Red List publication summarises results for all hitherto described native European Orthoptera species (grasshoppers, crickets and bush-crickets). All Orthoptera species (grasshoppers, crickets and bushcrickets) native to or naturalised in Europe before AD 1500 (a total of 1,082 species), have been assessed in this Red List. The geographical scope is continent-wide, extending from Iceland in the west to the Urals in the east, and from Franz Josef Land in the north to the Canary Islands in the south. The Caucasus region is not included. Red List assessments were made at two regional levels: for geographical Europe, and for the 28 Member States of the European Union in 2016. The status of all species was assessed using the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria (IUCN 2012a), which is the world’s most widely accepted system for measuring extinction risk. All assessments followed the Guidelines for Application of IUCN Red List Criteria at Regional and National Levels (IUCN 2012b). The assessments were compiled based on the data and knowledge from a network of leading European experts on Orthoptera. The assessments were then completed and reviewed at six workshops held in Italy, Greece, France, Bulgaria, Spain and Germany as well as through email correspondence with relevant experts. More than 145 experts participated in the assessment and review process for European Orthoptera species. Assessments are available on the European Red List website and data portal: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/ conservation/species/redlist and http://www.iucnredlist. org/initiatives/europe. Overall, 25.7% and 28% of Orthoptera species are assessed as threatened at the European and EU 28 levels, respectively. However, the exact proportion of threatened species is uncertain, as there are 107 (10%) Data Deficient (DD) species in Europe and 84 DD species (8.5%) in the EU 28. Estimating that a similar relative proportion of the DD assessments are likely to be threatened (IUCN 2011), the best estimate of the threatened share of Orthoptera species is thus 28.5% in Europe and 30.6% in the EU 28. Further research on DD species to clarify their status is therefore critical. A further 13.9% (149 species) and 13% (128 species) are considered Near Threatened in Europe and in the EU 28, respectively. By comparison, the best estimate of threatened species of those other groups that have been assessed comprehensively in Europe is 58% of freshwater molluscs, 40% of freshwater fishes, 23% of amphibians, 20% of reptiles, 17% of mammals, 16% of dragonflies, 13% of birds, 9% of butterflies and bees, 8% of aquatic plants and marine fishes and 2% of medicinal plants (IUCN 2015). Additional European Red Lists assessing a selection of species showed that 22% of terrestrial molluscs, 16% of crop wild relatives and 15% of saproxylic beetles are also threatened (IUCN 2015). No other groups have yet been assessed at the European level. Looking at the population trends of European Orthoptera species, 30.2% (325 species) have declining populations, 7.6% (82 species) are believed to be more or less stable and 3.2% (34 species) are increasing. However, the population trends for the majority of species (59%, 634 species) remain unknown. Out of the 739 species that are endemic to Europe (i.e., they are found nowhere else in the world), 231 (31.3%) are threatened, highlighting the responsibility that European countries have to protect the global populations of these species. Overall, the European areas with the highest diversity of species are found in southern Europe, especially in the Mediterranean region and the Balkans. Hotspots of endemic species are found in the Iberian, the Italian and the Balkan Peninsulas, and in some large mountain areas (the Alps, Pyrenees, Carpathians and Appenines). The greatest concentration of threatened species is found along some Mediterranean coasts and Mediterranean mountain blocks. Finally, the number of Data Deficient species reflects the general distribution of Orthoptera species, being highest in the Mediterranean and the Lower Volga region in southern European Russia. The main threat to European Orthoptera is the loss, degradation and fragmentation of their habitats as a consequence of agricultural land use intensification. This includes direct destruction by transformation of permanent grassland or shrubland habitats into cropland, degradation of habitat quality caused by overgrazing, abandonment, use of fertilisers or heavy machinery and direct mortality from frequent mowing or the use of pesticides. Other important threats to Orthoptera are the increasing frequency of wildfires, touristic development and urbanisation, climate change, afforestation and intensive forest management, drainage and river regulations, recreational activities, deforestation, limestone quarrying and sand excavations and invasive species.Orthoptera are a diverse group of insects with more than 1,000 species known to occur in Europe and play important roles in the ecosystem such as being part of the food chain and prey to many vertebrate species. They are also good indicators of land use intensity, which makes them one of the most important invertebrate groups for environmental monitoring and assessment. Conservation strategies for the European Orthoptera species with the highest extinction risk should be developed and implemented. The European Red List should be used to inform nature and biodiversity policies to improve the status of threatened species. The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) should be enhanced by promoting traditional low-intensity agricultural land use systems, particularly pastoralism in Europe, and committing to a long-term reduction in the use of pesticides and fertilisers, encouraging the uptake of alternative pest management. Orthoptera species should be made a standard group for inclusion in Environmental Impact Assessments to avoid negative impacts of new development projects on threatened species.Degraded habitats of threatened Orthoptera species throughout Europe should be restored and guidelines for the optimal management of Orthoptera habitats should be developed. The protection of Orthoptera habitats throughout Europe should be improved, so that each threatened and endemic European species is present in at least one protected area with an adequate adaptive management scheme and monitoring for threatened Orthoptera species. Orthoptera inventories in protected areas should be made mandatory to identify priority species for the respective area and develop strategies for their protection. A pan-European monitoring programme for Orthoptera species should be developed, by merging all existing recording schemes. Specific research on those species that have not been recently recorded in Europe to clarify if they may be Extinct or Regionally Extinct, or have been assessed as Data Deficient should be conducted and funding mechanisms should be put in place to support this research. The effects of the lesser understood threats (e.g., wildfires, pesticides, climate change) on Orthoptera should be studied. The European Red List of Grasshoppers, Crickets and Bush-crickets should be revised at regular intervals of ten years, and whenever new data becomes available.