Red lists are a pivotal tool for nature conservation. They are important for scientists, governmental officers, conservation, stakeholders and citizens. This last red list assessment I have contributed to the assessment of the tree family Dipterocarpaceae. The book has been a collaborative effort of numerous scientist who have spent time in the forest and in the museum to identify the species and to understand the real distribution, conservation and threath of each species. Due to the magnitude of species, knowledge and difficulties, this projects can rarely be concluded by a single researcher. 

In total there are 535 species from 17 genera. In the effort to conserve this important component, I am glad to be part of the team who has produced The Red List of Dipterocarpaceae.

We found:

1) 357 (67%) species of Dipterocarpaceae are Threatened in the wild.

67%! yes 67% are threatened which means that the population (the number of individuals) is decreasing due to logging and land conversion to agriculture etc.

2) 70 species are assessed as Critically Endangered, and one species, Hopea shingkeng, is already assessed as Extinct.

Yes, you can say to the person next to you that a tree species which take millions of years to evolve is extinct!

3) Indonesia and Malaysia are home to the greatest number of dipterocarp species (278 and 340 species respectively), consequently, these two countries also contain the highest numbers of threatened species (168 and 211 species respectively).

4) Sri Lanka and India have comparatively fewer species, but a higher proportion of threat is observed

(61 native and 58 Threatened for Sri Lanka/ 31 native and 30 Threatened for India).

5) Analyses found 201 single-country endemics, of which 84% are Threatened in the wild.

6) 22 species are Data Deficient, indicating more information is needed.