Protected from humans. Human activity - deforestation, habitat alteration, hunting, etc. - is overwhelmingly the most important threat to the survival of the species in question. The vast majority of them would not be threatened by extinctions if humans weren’t destroying their habitats.
“Protected” in this case means that the species is found within a national park, wildlife refuge, etc. “Unprotected” means that it is only known to occur in areas without any formal legal protection.
I just completed a technical analysis of exactly this kind for the birds of Panama. I found that although many threatened species were found in protected areas, others were not.
I also found that the loss of a few thousand more acres of forest in one area of Panama will cause probably a dozen species of birds from the country. These species have already lost 99.9 percent of their range in Panama through deforestation, and none of their range in Panama is protected. (Although these species would continue to survive in Costa Rica, which is the only other country where most of them occur, they are threatened by deforestation there as well.)
As others have said, it is not hyperbole, it is probably a gross understatement.