CISARUA, INDONESIA – FEBRUARY 26: Dema (male) the 26-day-old endangered Sumatran Tiger cub cuddles … [+]
On average, most wildlife species number less than a third what they did in 1970, during a period when we added over four billion humans to the planet.
That’s the latest startling statistic from the Living Planet Report for 2022 from WWF.
Perhaps surprisingly, the biggest declines have been seen in species that live in freshwater, which have declined by an average of 83% over the last half century.
The worst biodiversity loss is found in Latin America and the Caribbean where the average figure across all species is 94% fewer individuals in 2018 compared to 1970, with declines across all groups but most brutally among freshwater fish, reptiles, and amphibians.
The statistics are based on data from monitored populations of over 5,000 species of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish.
The report points to a handful of causes for how tough it is to be an animal in the modern world. Culprits include climate change, pollution, non-native invasive species and overfishing but WWF lists the shifting ways land is used and managed as a key concern globally.
“Land-use change is still the biggest current threat to nature, destroying or fragmenting the natural habitats of many plant and animal species on land, in freshwater and in the sea,” the executive summary reads.
But the report devotes much ink to climate change as well, calling “climate and biodiversity crises” the “global double emergency.”
Think cutting and torching the Amazon rain forest to make way for grazing cattle.
WWF echoes the call of a number of other organizations to protect 80 percent of the Amazon by 2025.
Cattle grazing in pasture formed by cleared rainforest land with tree stumps left, Amazon region, … [+]
The report proposes a return to indigenous leadership in conservation and “building a nature-positive society” as potential paths forward that could better preserve what wildlife remains.
“We need systemwide changes in how we produce and consume, the technology we use, and our economic and financial systems,” the report reads.
Reforms to global supply chains and diversification of food production worldwide are also put forth.
“We need nature positive by 2030 – which, in simple terms, means more nature by the end of this decade than at its start,” says WWF International Director General Marco Lambertini. “More natural forests, more fish in the ocean and river systems, more pollinators in our farmlands, more biodiversity worldwide.”
