WWF reveals alarming figures on dwindling wildlife populations

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) revealed on Thursday that wild populations of monitored animal species have fallen by more than 70% in the past half century.

WWF’s Living Planet Index, which includes 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 around the world.

The landmark assessment notes that the populations in question had declined by 73% since 1970, largely due to human pressures.

In areas rich in biodiversity, such as Latin America and the Caribbean, the rate of animal population loss is as high as 95%.

The report tracks trends in the abundance of a large number of species, not individual numbers of animals.

The index has become an international reference and comes just before the next United Nations biodiversity summit, which will highlight the issue when it opens in Colombia later this month.

“The picture we are painting is incredibly worrying,” said WWF International Director General Kirsten Schuijt.

Climate change

“It’s not just about wildlife, it’s about the key ecosystems that sustain human life,” said WWF’s head of environmental protection, Daudi Sumba.

The report reiterates the need for a simultaneous approach

“interrelated” crises of climate change and nature destruction and warned of major “tipping points” approaching some ecosystems.

“The changes could be irreversible, with catastrophic consequences for humanity,” Souba said, adding that using the example of deforestation in the Amazon, which could “shift this critical ecosystem from a carbon sink to a source of carbon’.

“Habitat degradation and loss, mainly due to our food system, is the most cited threat in each region, followed by overexploitation, invasive species and disease,” the report says.

Other threats include climate change, particularly in Latin America and the Caribbean, and pollution, particularly in North America, Asia and the Pacific.

“The point of no return has not yet been passed”

The greatest decrease is observed in the 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.

From continent to continent, the average decline reached 95% in Latin America and the Caribbean, followed by Africa, with a 76% decline, and then Asia and the Pacific, which declined by 60%.

Population declines are “less spectacular” in Europe, Central Asia and North America. Some populations have stabilized or even expanded thanks to conservation efforts and the reintroduction of species, the report said.

The European bison, for example, became extinct in the wild in 1927, but in 2020 numbered 6,800 thanks to large-scale breeding and successful reintroduction, mostly in protected areas.

While calling the overall picture “incredibly worrying”, Schuijt added: “The good news is that we have not yet passed the point of no return.”

He pointed to global efforts, including a breakthrough pact landed at the last UN biodiversity meeting in 2022 to protect 30 percent of the planet by 2030 from pollution, degradation and climate change.

However, he warned that “all these agreements have checkpoints in 2030 that are at risk of being lost.”

Several scientific studies published by the journal Nature have accused the WWF of methodological biases in its index that lead to an exaggerated extent of animal decline.

“We remain really confident in its robustness,” Andrew Terry of the Zoological Society of London told a press conference, stressing the use of a “range of indicators, looking at extinction risk, biodiversity and ecosystem health to really expand that picture”.