Number of threatened and extinct species in The Netherlands

Assembling Red Lists

Red Lists per species group are compiled approximately every ten years. Species decreasing in population size and/or in distribution range and species that have gone extinct since 1900 are included in the Red List. The Dutch Red Lists may be regarded as a national application of the IUCN Red List (IUCN 2008), but follow their own protocol, for a number of species groups, based on the Red List status per species. As a species continues to decline and becomes increasingly rare, it is assigned a more severe Red List threat category. The following threat categories are distinguished: least concern, near threatened, vulnerable, endangered, critically endangered, extinct (in this context meaning ‘extinct in The Netherlands’), and data deficient.   

To date, official Red Lists of 19 species groups (pertaining to fish only for freshwater fish) have been compiled. The Red list status of each assessed species is published in the Dutch Government Gazette. For most of these 19 species groups, the Red List status of each species of native and established species in The Netherlands, for which there is enough data, has been revised and published in the Government Gazette at least twice, resulting in updated Red Lists. Only species that have reproduced for at least ten consecutive years in The Netherlands are considered. Established species are species that have reached The Netherlands with the aid of humans. Sources (below) lists the proposals for the Red Lists (most with an English summary) and the announcements in the Dutch Government Gazette, making them official. The proposal Red List Stoneflies was assembled for the first time in 2023 based on data of 2022, published in March 2024 and published in the Dutch Government Gazette in October 2024. The Red List Dragonflies is the most recently revised. Based on data of 2024 the proposal Red List was published by De Vlinderstichting (Dutch Butterfly Conservation) in October 2025, and the species were published in the Dutch Government Gazette in April 2026.

Threatened and extinct species

In each of the 19 species groups, at least one third of the species are listed in the Red List with a threatened or extinct status. In some species groups the ratio is much higher. For stoneflies this pertains to 19 out of 20 species with sufficient data (95%); for reptiles to 5 out of 7 species (71%); for mayflies 39 out of 60 (65%); for butterflies 47 out of 76 (62%); for macrofungi 1629 out of 2624 (62%); for bees 181 out of 331 (55%) and for bryophytes 389 out of 718 species (54%; see table under Download data). In the species groups stoneflies, mayflies, butterflies and bees the proportion of species that have gone extinct in The Netherlands is relatively high. Many threatened species are not protected by law. 

Trend of Red List species

Periodical revisions of official Red Lists make it possible to derive trends in the numbers of threatened and extinct species over time. However, with a revision frequency of approximately ten years, such trends do not reflect the actual situation in the years between revisions. By constructing “virtual” Red Lists in the years between official Red List publications, it is possible to calculate the trend in the number of threatened species on a yearly basis (see the Red List Indicator).

• Red List Indicator