Global wildlife numbers declined 73% since 1970, says WWF

The report, released on October 9, said that significant ‘collective effort’ will be required over the next five years to tackle the dual climate and nature crises.

There has been a 73% decline in the average size of monitored wildlife populations from 1970-2020, according to the World Wide Fund (WWF) for Nature’s Living Planet Report (LPR) 2024, a biennial compilation of the threats faced to wildlife. In the 2022 edition of the report, the measured decline was 69%.

The report, released on Wednesday (October 9), said that significant “collective effort” will be required over the next five years to tackle the dual climate and nature crises.

The Living Planet Index (LPI), provided by Zoological Society of London (ZSL), includes almost 35,000 population trends of 5,495 species from 1970-2020. The sharpest decline is reported in freshwater ecosystems at 85%, followed by terrestrial ecosystems at 69% and marine ecosystems at 56%.Habitat loss and degradation, driven primarily by the way the world organises farming and consumes food, is the most reported threat to wildlife populations around the world, followed by over-exploitation, invasive species, and diseases. Pollution is an additional threat for wildlife populations in Asia and the Pacific, which have recorded a 60% average decline, the report noted. There are no India specific projections. The LPI in the 2024 and 2022 reports are not directly comparable as the dataset changes for each edition. This year’s index included 265 more species and 3,015 more populations than the previous LPI. 

Declines in wildlife populations can act as an early warning indicator of increasing extinction risk and the potential loss of healthy ecosystems. When ecosystems are damaged, they can become more vulnerable to tipping points – being pushed beyond a critical threshold resulting in substantial and potentially irreversible change.

The report noted the decline in three vulture species in India — white-rumped vulture (Gyps bengalensis), Indian vulture (Gyps indicus), and slender-billed vulture (Gyps tenuirostris). A 2022 nationwide vulture survey by the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) highlighted the extent of this decline: the white-rumped vulture population has dropped by 67%, the Indian vulture by 48%, and the slender-billed vulture by 89% compared to their populations in 2002. “This situation underscores the urgent need for conservation measures to protect these critical scavengers and maintain ecological balance,” said an accompanying press statement.

“Nature is issuing a distress call. The linked crises of nature loss and climate change are pushing wildlife and ecosystems beyond their limits, with dangerous global tipping points threatening to damage earth’s life-support systems and destabilise societies,” Kirsten Schuijt, Director General of WWF International, said in a statement, “The catastrophic consequences of losing some of our most precious ecosystems, like the Amazon rainforest and coral reefs, would be felt by people and nature around the world.”

Despite a decline in many wildlife populations in India, some populations have stabilised and shown recovery, largely due to proactive government initiatives, effective habitat management, and robust scientific monitoring, combined with community engagement and public support. Notably, India is home to the largest population of wild tigers globally. The All-India Tiger Estimation 2022 recorded a minimum of 3,682 tigers, a significant increase from the 2,967 estimated in 2018, the report noted.

Countries have agreed on ambitious global goals to halt and reverse nature loss (the Global Biodiversity Framework), cap global temperature rise to 1.5C (the Paris Agreement), and eradicate poverty (the UN Sustainable Development Goals). However national commitments and action on the ground fall far short of what is required to meet targets for 2030 and avoid dangerous tipping points, the report underlined.

Published - October 10, 2024 06:00 am IST