RIGA, Jan 22 (LETA) - A new edition of the Red Data Book on protected and endangered plant and animal species was launched at the House of Sciences of the University of Latvia on Thursday.

The new edition of the Latvian Red Data Book contains 75 percent of the protected species that had been included in the previous edition, which was published from 1996 to 2003, Jekabs Dzenis, coordinator of the Life for Species project "Endangered species in Latvia: improved knowledge and capacity, circulation and understanding of information", said at the launch of the latest edition Thursday.

Meanwhile, 76 species, or 13 percent, have been removed from the list of protected species, and 17 species that were previously considered extinct, have been found again in Latvia in recent decades.

Laura Aniteina, director-general of the Latvian Nature Conservation Agency (DAP), said that the new edition of the Red Data Book is not only a measure of Latvia's ability to protect its biodiversity, but also a tool to increase and strengthen public knowledge about nature values. It is not only a repository of data, but also a national symbol and a modern tool that will help to make far-sighted decisions on nature conservation in the decades to come.

The first two editions of the Latvian Red Data Book (published in 1985 and from 1996 to 2003) were prepared under the leadership of Dr. biol. Gunars Andrusaitis, the longtime director of the Latvian Academy of Sciences Institute of Biology.

The Latvian Red Data Book is the most comprehensive and up-to-date scientific compendium on the country's threatened and endangered species in decades, providing the public, policy makers and conservationists with an overview of the status of these species in Latvia and helping to promote their conservation.

The new edition of the Latvian Red Data Book is structured into six thematic volumes: fungi, lichens and slime molds; mosses and charophytes; vascular plants; invertebrates; fish, amphibians, reptiles and mammals; birds.

The volumes contain descriptions of 1,069 species, including subspecies, their populations and other descriptions not only of rare, threatened and endangered species, but also of species that are near threatened or for which data and information for extinction risk assessments are lacking.

The Red Data Book was compiled from 2021 to 2025, bringing together a wide range of scientists and nature experts. For the first time in Latvia's history, the assessment of species' risk of extinction has been carried out according to the internationally recognized International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) methodology, which ensures that the results obtained are more widely used internationally.

More than 55 species experts from Latvia and Estonia took part in the assessment of the species included in the book, while 37 foreign experts from eight European countries reviewed the assessments. Expert meetings and public discussions were organized, which were also open to the general public.

The electronic version of the book is freely available to everyone at https://sarkanagramata.lu.lv/.