The new edition of Latvia’s Red Book includes 75% of the species that were already listed as protected in the second edition, published between 1996 and 2003, project coordinator Jēkabs Dzenis said at the launch event of the new edition. The book was prepared within the project “Threatened Species in Latvia: Improved Knowledge and Capacity, Information Exchange and Awareness” (Life for Species).
At the same time, over the past 20 years, 76 species — or 13% — have been removed from the list of protected species. In addition, 17 species previously considered extinct have been rediscovered in Latvia during recent decades.
Director General of the Nature Conservation Agency (DAP) Laura Anteina emphasized that the new edition of Latvia’s Red Book is not only a measure of the country’s ability to protect biodiversity, but also an important tool for expanding and strengthening public knowledge about natural values. It is not merely a repository of data, but a national-level symbol and a modern instrument that will help support forward-looking decision-making in nature conservation over the coming decades.
A significant contribution to the creation of the first two editions of Latvia’s Red Book was made by the long-serving director of the Institute of Biology of the Latvian Academy of Sciences, Gunārs Andrušaitis. His son, hydrobiologist Andris Andrušaitis, not only shared memories about the preparation of the first two editions, but also encouraged exploring the possibility of creating a popular science version of the Red Book for children and the general public.
The Latvian Red Book is the most comprehensive and up-to-date scientific compilation of threatened and extinct species
in the country produced in recent decades. It provides society, policymakers, and those involved in nature conservation with an overview of the status of these species in Latvia and helps promote their preservation.
The new edition of Latvia’s Red Book is structured into six thematic volumes: fungi, lichens and slime molds; mosses and charophytes; vascular plants; invertebrates; fish, amphibians, reptiles and mammals; and birds.
The volumes include 1,069 species, including subspecies, populations and other taxonomic units. The descriptions cover not only rare, threatened and extinct species in Latvia, but also species that are near threatened or for which there is insufficient data to assess extinction risk. The most extensive volume is devoted to vascular plants. Its chief editor, Liene Auniņa, noted that this is due to the ongoing loss of natural grasslands in recent years, which has placed many species at risk. She called on everyone who owns or manages natural grasslands to maintain and care for them in order to preserve plant diversity.
The content of the book was developed between 2021 and 2025,
bringing together a broad range of scientists and nature experts. For the first time in Latvia’s history, species threat and extinction risk assessments were conducted in accordance with the internationally recognized methodology of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), ensuring that the results can also be used at an international level.
More than 55 species experts from Latvia and Estonia took part in assessing the species included in the book, while the assessments were reviewed by 37 foreign experts from eight European countries. Both expert meetings and public discussions were organized, allowing broader public participation.
The electronic version of the Red Book is freely available to the public at https://sarkanagramata.lu.lv/. The printed edition will be available for viewing from tomorrow at the nature centers of Rāzna, Ķemeri, Gauja National Park and the North Vidzeme Biosphere Reserve, as well as at the National Library of Latvia. Thanks to cooperation with the National Library, the book will also become available in major public libraries and educational institution libraries across Latvia in the coming months.
Latvia’s Red Book was prepared within the LIFE programme project Life for Species.
The project is implemented by the Institute of Biology of the Faculty of Medicine and Life Sciences at the University of Latvia, in cooperation with the Nature Conservation Agency, Daugavpils University and the Latvian Ornithological Society, with financial support from the European Commission and the Ministry of Smart Administration and Regional Development.
The first list of plant and animal species included in Latvia’s Red Book, along with their descriptions, was approved in 1980. The original Red Book was created manually: the text was typed on a typewriter, species illustrations were drawn by hand, photographed and pasted into species entries, and distribution maps were drawn manually on printed templates. All pages were fastened together with staples so that the information could be easily updated in the future. This Red Data Book was published in printed form in 1985. Its popular science version on animals was published in 1990, and the version on plants followed in 1992.
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