New analysis finds more than a third of tree species are at risk of extinction

The decade-long project found that more than a third of tree species are threatened with extinction, highlighting the scale of the crisis facing the ecosystem.

The report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), released during a two-week United Nations biodiversity conference in Cali, Colombia, found that of the 47,282 tree species assessed, at least 16,425 are at risk of extinction, double the number of all birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians at risk of extinction combined.

A deforested area near La Paz, Guaviare province, Colombia. (Photo: Bloomberg).

Fossil fuel pollution that heats the planet is threatening trees , exacerbating the climate crisis, because trees are what suck pollutants out of the atmosphere.

Some of the major threats trees face include deforestation for urban development, agriculture, invasive species, disease, as well as rising sea levels and more intense storms, according to researchers .

"This list shows that the loss of trees directly threatens thousands of other species, plants, fungi and animals, demonstrating the close connection between our natural world," said Grethel Aguilar , director general of the IUCN, at a press conference in Colombia on October 28.

Trees produce the oxygen humans breathe, provide food and shelter for wildlife, provide medicine and nutrition for indigenous people, and absorb heat-trapping carbon pollution from the atmosphere, Aguilar added.

The majority of threatened tree species are found on islands such as Fiji, Cuba and Madagascar. In South America, home to the Amazon rainforest, 3,356 of the 13,668 tree species assessed are at risk of extinction due to deforestation for farming and ranching.

Urgent conservation efforts to prevent species extinction need to start with trees, Ms Aguilar said.

'Can you imagine a planet without trees? We, humans, have the power to reverse this and save the trees we depend on, so the task we have to do is huge ,' she stressed.