The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) on Thursday revealed that wild populations of monitored animal species have plummeted over 70% in the last half-century.
The WWF Living Planet Index, featuring data from 35,000 populations of more than 5,000 species of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish shows a rapid decline in animal populations across the globe.
The landmark assessment points out that the populations under review had fallen 73% since 1970, mostly due to human pressures.
In biodiversity-rich regions such as Latin America and the Caribbean, the figure for animal population loss is as high as 95%.
The report tracks trends in the abundance of a large number of species, not individual animal numbers.
The index has become an international reference and arrives just ahead of the next United Nations summit on biodiversity, which will spotlight the issue when it opens in Colombia later this month.
“The picture we are painting is incredibly concerning,” said WWF International Director General Kirsten Kirsten Schuijt.
Climate change
“This is not just about wildlife, it´s about the essential ecosystems that sustain human life,” said WWF Chief Conservation Officer Daudi Sumba.
The report reiterates the need to simultaneously confront the “interconnected” crises of climate change and nature destruction, and warned of major “tipping points” approaching certain ecosystems.
“The changes could be irreversible, with devastating consequences for humanity,” said Sumba, adding that using the example of deforestation in the Amazon, which could “shift this critical ecosystem from a carbon sink to a carbon source.”
“Habitat degradation and loss, driven primarily by our food system, is the most reported threat in each region, followed by overexploitation, invasive species and disease,” said the report.
Other threats include climate change, in particular in Latin America and the Caribbean, and pollution, notably in North America, Asia and the Pacific.
‘Not yet past the point of no return’
The biggest decline is found in populations of freshwater species, followed by terrestrial and marine vertebrates.
“We have emptied the oceans of 40% of their biomass,” said Yann Laurans of WWF France.
Continent by continent, the average decline reached 95% in Latin America and the Caribbean, followed by Africa, down 76%, and then Asia and the Pacific, which declined 60%.
The reduction in populations is “less spectacular” in Europe, Central Asia and North America. Some populations have stabilised or even expanded thanks to conservation efforts and the reintroduction of species, the report said.
The European bison, for example, disappeared in the wild in 1927 but in 2020 numbered 6,800 thanks to large-scale breeding and successful reintroduction, mainly in protected areas.
While calling the overall picture “incredibly concerning,” Schuijt added: “The good news is that we’re not yet past the point of no return”.
She pointed to global efforts including a breakthrough pact landed at the last UN meeting on biodiversity in 2022 to protect 30% of the planet by 2030 from pollution, degradation and climate change.
But she warned that “all of these agreements have checkpoints in 2030 that are in danger of being missed”.
Several scientific studies published by the journal Nature have accused WWF of methodological biases in its index that lead to an exaggerated extent of the decline of animals.
“We remain really confident of its robustness,” said Andrew Terry of the Zoological Society of London at a press briefing, highlighting the use of a “range of indicators, looking at extinction risk, biodiversity and ecosystem health to really broaden that picture”.
