World’s wildlife populations ‘have plummeted by an average of 69 per cent since 1970’, warns report

Global wildlife populations have fallen by an average of 69 per cent per cent in less than 50 years, conservationists have warned.

Comparing this to the population of humans, that would be the equivalent of losing everyone from Europe, the Americas, Africa, Oceania and China. 

WWF’s latest Living Planet report assesses the abundance of almost 32,000 populations of 5,230 species of animals around the world.

Species in freshwater lakes, rivers and wetlands have been worst hit, declining by an average of 83 per cent since 1970.

The report reveals that the population decline was driven largely by the loss of natural habitat for agriculture, while climate change is also increasingly a threat to wildlife. 

The WWF are urging an increase in conservation and restoration measures across the globe to prevent figures like this rapidly rising. 

This year’s report is the most comprehensive in its 24-year history, adding 838 new species and just over 11,000 new populations since the previous report in 2020.

It is based on data from the Zoological Society of London’s (ZSL) Living Planet Index (LPI).

The worst declines are in Latin America, home to the world’s largest rainforest, the Amazon, where increasing deforestation is destroying trees and the species that rely on them. 

Wildlife population sizes in the region have declined by 94 per cent on average in the past half century, the report said. 

The Amazon pink river dolphin is just one of these species seeing a catastrophic loss. 

Between 1994 and 2016 its population in the Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve in the Brazilian state of Amazonas fell by 65 per cent.

Auricélia Arapiun, leader of the Tapajós Arapiuns Indigenous Council in the Para state of the Brazilian Amazon, said: ‘The decline in animals across our land is stark – we used to see armadillos every day, now we see none.

‘Jaguars used to be hard to spot, but because their hunting grounds and the trees that were their habitats have been destroyed, they come to our villages and kill our dogs. 

‘We have to keep a very careful eye on our children. This never used to happen, they would hunt and roam in the forest.’

Experts said the Amazon is fast approaching a tipping point where it will cease to be a functioning rainforest, without which the world cannot avert dangerous global warming.

If ‘we lose the Amazon, we lose that fight’ against climate change, WWF chief executive Tanya Steele warned.

Europe, central Asia and North America have seen lesser declines in populations, but ZSL scientists said these areas had already seen reductions in nature by 1970 when the data begins.

Conservationists warn the UK is not immune to wildlife declines, with just half of its nature richness left compared with historic levels.

This makes it one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world.

Once common wildlife such as skylarks and hedgehogs are no longer everyday sightings, while 92 per cent of sea grass habitat and 97 per cent of wildflower meadows have been lost.

In South and Western Australia, the number of Australian sea lion pups has reduced by 64 per cent.

Additionally, on average, monitored populations of oceanic sharks and rays have decreased by 71 per cent in the last 50 years.

The report points to the consumption habits of wealthy countries and our reliance on fossil fuels as the propelling force driving this detrimental loss. 

Every year, 10 million hectares of forest is lost – an area around the size of Portugal, hitting the climate, food security and millions of people’s livelihoods.

There are some bright spots of wildlife bucking the declines, such as numbers of loggerhead turtle nests increasing 500 per cent along the coastline of Chyrsochou Bay, Cyprus, between 1999 and 2015 thanks to targeted conservation efforts.

In the UK, once-extinct common cranes have been reintroduced, with the population reaching more than 200.

Plus, in the Virunga Mountains of east Africa conservation efforts have helped increase mountain gorilla numbers from 480 in 2010 to 604.

However, Dr Mike Barrett, executive director of science and conservation at WWF, warned that ‘at the moment we are losing nature still, so we’re heading the wrong way.’

Ms Steele has urged new Prime Minister Liz Truss and her team to ensure the UK ‘is not complicit in the destruction of nature here and around the world’.

She said the UK should start by legislating to remove products from British shops, ranging from food to gold, that are linked to driving deforestation in other countries, and to support farmers here to farm sustainably and restore nature. 

‘Despite the science, the catastrophic projections, the impassioned speeches and promises, the burning forests, submerged countries, record temperatures and displaced millions – world leaders continue to sit back and watch our world burn in front of our eyes,’ said Ms Steele.

‘The climate and nature crises, their fates entwined, are not some faraway threat our grandchildren will solve with still-to-be-discovered technology.

‘Across the world, and in the UK, nature is on its knees and our leaders are risking catastrophic consequences for people, planet and our economy by failing to act.’

When world leaders meet in Montreal in December for the biodiversity conference Cop15, the UK should play a leading role in making sure an action plan is agreed to ensure nature is starting to recover by the end of this decade, she added.