The World Conservation Union (IUCN) Conifer Specialist Group maintains a database tracking conservation status of all conifer species and many subspecies and varieties. The most current version of this database is available online at the IUCN Red List Database. This information, in a somewhat dated form, is also available in print form as Farjon and Page (1999). IUCN categories and species numbers as cataloged in that publication are here summarized:
Category Number of Species Definition
EX 0 Extinct.
EW 0 Extinct in the wild. Known only in cultivation or from naturalized populations. One species, Thuja sutchuenensis, was so classified until rediscovered in 1999.
CR 21 Critically endangered. Facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the near future.
EN 50 Endangered. Facing a very high risk of extinction in the wild in the near future.
VU 130 Vulnerable. Facing a high risk of extinction in the wild in the medium-term future.
LR 562 Lower risk. Does not satisfy the criteria for any of the above categories. Some LR species are rare but have been protected, or are borderline vulnerable. Others are simply not threatened in the foreseeable future.
DD 37 Data deficient. There is currently insufficient information to assign the taxon to one of the above risk categories.

Fully detailed definition of these categories is available HERE.

This page is from the Gymnosperm Database
URL: http://www.conifers.org/t_and_e/IUCN.htm
Edited by Christopher J. Earle
Last modified on 2006.09.28