The IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) released a new update to its Red List of Threatened Species. The update includes the first assessments of various crops essential to food security, and includes the information that the global giraffe population has plummeted by 40% in the last 30 years.

“Many species are slipping away before we can even describe them,” says IUCN Director General Inger Andersen. “This IUCN Red List update shows that the scale of the global extinction crisis may be even greater than we thought. Governments gathered at the UN biodiversity summit in Cancun have the immense responsibility to step up their efforts to protect our planet’s biodiversity – not just for its own sake but for human imperatives such as food security and sustainable development.”