Not evaluated

This conservation category is one of nine IUCN threat assessment categories for species to indicate their risk of global extinction. The categories range from extinct (EX) at one end of the spectrum, to least concern (LC) at the other. The categories data deficient and not evaluated (NE) are not on the spectrum, because they indicate species that have not been reviewed enough to assign to a category.{{Cite book|url=http://cmsdocs.s3.amazonaws.com/keydocuments/Categories_and_Criteria_en_web%2Bcover%2Bbckcover.pdf|title=IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria: Version 3.1.|year=2012|isbn=978-2-8317-1435-6|edition=2nd|location=Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK|access-date=2018-07-24|archive-date=2018-12-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181224044503/http://cmsdocs.s3.amazonaws.com/keydocuments/Categories_and_Criteria_en_web%2Bcover%2Bbckcover.pdf|url-status=live}}

The category of not evaluated does not indicate that a species is not at risk of extinction, but simply that the species has not yet been studied for any risk to be quantified and published. The IUCN advises that species categorised as not evaluated "... should not be treated as if they were non-threatened. It may be appropriate ... to give them the same degree of attention as threatened taxa, at least until their status can be assessed."{{rp|7}}{{cite web |title=Guidelines for Using the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria. Version 13 |url=http://cmsdocs.s3.amazonaws.com/RedListGuidelines.pdf |publisher=IUCN Standards and Petitions Subcommittee |access-date=24 July 2018 |date=2017 |archive-date=23 April 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180423191058/http://cmsdocs.s3.amazonaws.com/RedListGuidelines.pdf |url-status=dead }}{{rp|76}}

By 2015, the IUCN had assessed and allocated conservation statuses to over 76,000 species worldwide. From these it had categorised some 24,000 species as globally threatened at one conservation level or another. However, despite estimates varying widely as to the number of species existing on Earth (ranging from 3 million up to 30 million), this means the IUCN's 'not evaluated' (NE) category is by far the largest of all nine extinction risk categories.{{cite web |title=Wildlife Conservation Resource |url=https://www.marwell.org.uk/media/other/wildlife_conservation_resource_2016_final_25082016120629.pdf |website=Marwell Zoo |access-date=23 July 2018 |archive-date=24 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180724154624/https://www.marwell.org.uk/media/other/wildlife_conservation_resource_2016_final_25082016120629.pdf |url-status=dead }}

The global IUCN assessment and categorization process has subsequently been applied at country and sometimes at regional levels as the basis for assessing conservation threats and for establishing individual Red Data lists for those areas.{{Cite journal|last1=MILLER|first1=REBECCA M.|last2=RODRÍGUEZ|first2=JON PAUL|last3=ANISKOWICZ-FOWLER|first3=THERESA|last4=BAMBARADENIYA|first4=CHANNA|last5=BOLES|first5=RUBEN|last6=EATON|first6=MARK A.|last7=GÄRDENFORS|first7=ULF|last8=KELLER|first8=VERENA|last9=MOLUR|first9=SANJAY|date=June 2007|title=National Threatened Species Listing Based on IUCN Criteria and Regional Guidelines: Current Status and Future Perspectives|journal=Conservation Biology|volume=21|issue=3|pages=684–696|doi=10.1111/j.1523-1739.2007.00656.x|pmid=17531047|s2cid=27086108 |issn=0888-8892|doi-access=free|bibcode=2007ConBi..21..684M }}{{Cite web|url=http://redlist.sanbi.org/redcat.php|title=Threatened Species Programme {{!}} SANBI Red List of South African Plants|website=redlist.sanbi.org|language=en|access-date=2018-07-24|archive-date=2017-08-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170802124405/http://redlist.sanbi.org/redcat.php|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|url=https://nt.gov.au/environment/animals/classification-of-wildlife|title=Classification of wildlife|last=Government|first=Northern Territory|date=2017-07-24|website=nt.gov.au|language=en|access-date=2018-07-24|archive-date=2018-07-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180724154224/https://nt.gov.au/environment/animals/classification-of-wildlife|url-status=live}}{{cite web |title=The National Red List 2012 of Sri Lanka Conservation Status of the Fauna and Flora |url=http://www.cea.lk/web/images/pdf/redlist2012.pdf |publisher=Ministry of Environment, Colombo, Sri Lanka. |access-date=24 July 2018 |date=2012 |archive-date=13 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180713202136/http://cea.lk/web/images/pdf/redlist2012.pdf |url-status=live }}{{Cite journal|last=Hilton-Taylor|first=C.|date=1997|title=Red Data List of southern African plants. 2. Corrections and additions|url=https://abcjournal.org/index.php/ABC/article/viewFile/681/625|journal=Bothalia|volume=27|issue=2|pages=205|doi=10.4102/abc.v27i2.681|access-date=2018-07-24|archive-date=2018-07-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180724154733/https://abcjournal.org/index.php/ABC/article/viewFile/681/625|url-status=live|url-access=subscription|doi-access=free}}{{Cite journal|last1=W.|first1=Duckworth, J.|last2=G.|first2=Batters|last3=L.|first3=Belant, J.|last4=L.|first4=Bennett, E.|last5=J.|first5=Brunner|last6=J.|first6=Burton|last7=S.|first7=Challender, D. W.|last8=V.|first8=Cowling|last9=N.|first9=Duplaix|date=2012-08-23|title=Why South-east Asia should be the world's priority for averting imminent species extinctions, and a call to join a developing cross-institutional programme to tackle this urgent issue|url=https://journals.openedition.org/sapiens/1327|journal=S.A.P.I.EN.S.|volume=5|issue=2|issn=1993-3800|access-date=2018-07-24|archive-date=2018-07-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180724155523/https://journals.openedition.org/sapiens/1327|url-status=live}}

Assessment criteria have also begun to be applied as a way of categorizing threats to ecosystems, with every ecosystem falling into the IUCN category 'not evaluated' prior to the start of the assessment process.{{cite journal |last1=Rodrıguez |first1=Jon Paul |last2=Keith |first2=David A. |last3=Rodrıguez-Clark |first3=Kathryn M. |display-authors=etal |title=A practical guide to the application of the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems criteria |journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences |url=https://www.iucn.org/sites/dev/files/content/documents/rodriguez-etal-2015-a-practical-guide-iucn-rle_erratum.pdf |publisher=Royal Society |access-date=24 July 2018 |page=3 |date=2015 |volume=370 |issue=1662 |doi=10.1098/rstb.2014.0003 |pmid=25561664 |pmc=4290417 |archive-date=24 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180724154107/https://www.iucn.org/sites/dev/files/content/documents/rodriguez-etal-2015-a-practical-guide-iucn-rle_erratum.pdf |url-status=dead }}

• Data deficient
• Convention on Biological Diversity

{{Reflist|2}}

{{Threatened species}}

Category:Biota by conservation status

Category:IUCN Red List