Proportion of Local Breeds at Risk of Extinction
This layer spatially represents the proportion of local breeds (i.e. breeds occurring in one country only) with risk status known for 2018.
Trends in the number of local breeds recorded as "Not at Risk", "At Risk", or "Unknown" indicate changes in the available information on local breed risk status, as well as how risk status has changed within a country.
The Proportion of Local Breeds with Risk Status Known was developed by aggregating information from the Domestic Animal Diversity Information System (DAD-IS) on the risk status of local breeds at the country level. The number of "Unknown", "Not at Risk", and "At Risk" local breeds reported in a given year were determined for each country. "At Risk" status is the sum of breeds categorized as "Critical", "Critical Maintained", "Endangered", "Endangered Maintained", and "Vulnerable". Local breeds that have not been assessed for risk status recently (i.e. with no recent information on their population sizes) are classified as "Unknown". The number of local breeds with "Risk Status Known" includes breeds classified as either "Not at Risk" or "At Risk".
This indicator is visualized as the proportion of breeds with the risk status known rather than the trends in the proportion of breeds at risk of extinction to avoid potential misinterpretation due to the varying numbers of breeds with sufficient information allowing to classify them into a risk category each year.
Also, breed diversity is not equivalent to genetic diversity because diversity within breeds is not accounted for, as well as how closely related breeds are to one another. Diversity in trans-boundary breeds (i.e. breeds with populations in more than one country) is not addressed in this indicator.
More information and further resources are available in the indicator factsheet here.