A grim picture of the state of global biodiversity has been painted by a new paper released October 10, 2024. The Living Planet Report 2024, a biennial assessment by conservation organisation the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), revealed that the average size of monitored wildlife populations has decreased by 73 per cent since 1970.
Populations have declined significantly over the last 50 years, according to trends in nearly 35,000 wildlife populations and 5,495 species of amphibians, birds, fish, mammals and reptiles, said the paper titled A System in Peril. The assessment emphasised the severe impact of human activities on wildlife and called for urgent action to protect biodiversity.
The WWF uses the Living Planet Index (LPI), which tracks the average trends in wildlife populations rather than focusing on increases or declines in individual species numbers. By monitoring changes in species population sizes over time, the LPI serves as an early warning indicator of extinction risk and helps assess ecosystem efficiency.
Between 1970 and 2020, freshwater species were the most affected, with an 85 per cent decline, followed by a 69 per cent decline in terrestrial species and a 56 per cent decline in marine populations, the report noted.
At a regional level, WWF highlighted the steepest declines in Latin America and the Caribbean, where populations have dropped by 95 per cent, followed by Africa, which has seen a 76 per cent decline.
The Asia-Pacific region collectively reported a 60 per cent decline. Europe has experienced comparatively smaller declines; however, Central Asia and North America have seen population drops of 35 per cent and 39 per cent, respectively.
Much of the large-scale impact on nature occurred before 1970, but some populations have stabilised due to conservation efforts and species reintroductions, the assessment noted. Key drivers of this decline include habitat degradation and loss, overexploitation of resources, pests and invasive species.
Climate change has been linked to population declines in Latin America and the Caribbean, while pollution has had the greatest impact in North America, Asia and the Pacific. The report warned of catastrophic consequences that could destabilise the Earth’s life support systems if current trends continue, pushing towards global tipping points.
Ongoing mass coral reef bleaching, affecting over 75 per cent of the world’s reefs, the Amazon rainforest, the collapse of the subpolar gyre and the melting of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets are all nearing critical tipping points. These tipping points protect millions of people living on coasts, sequester carbon and, if crossed, would trigger the release of large amounts of methane and carbon emissions.
For instance, the report cites a study in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, home to over 2,000 tree species and 800 animal species, which found that the loss of large fruit-eating animals due to hunting and illegal trade has reduced the seed dispersal of large-seeded trees.
These large hardwood trees store more carbon and their decline, replaced by smaller softwood trees, reduces the forest’s capacity to store carbon.
“This phenomenon has the potential to cause carbon storage losses of 2–12 per cent across forests in Africa, Latin America and Asia, reducing tropical forest carbon storage capacity in the face of climate change,” the WWF stated.
In Africa, the poaching of elephants for the ivory trade in Gabon and Cameroon caused a 78–81 per cent decline in forest elephant populations in Minkébé National Park between 2004 and 2014.
In another instance, the Sacramento winter-run Chinook salmon population dropped by 88 per cent between 1950 and 2020, as dams impacted the species' migratory route.
Fire seasons are also lengthening and extreme fire events have become more common in recent years, reaching as far as the Arctic Circle, the paper noted. Ecosystem degradation, combined with climate-induced changes in rainfall, heat, drought, invasive species and pests, is fuelling megafires, which are transforming ecosystems.
More than half of the United Nations-mandated Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 are unlikely to meet their targets, with 30 per cent of them either already missed or worse off than their 2015 baseline, the paper stated.
“National climate commitments would lead to an average global temperature increase of almost 3°C by the end of the century, inevitably triggering multiple catastrophic tipping points. National biodiversity strategies and action plans are inadequate and lack financial and institutional support,” it said.
Despite biodiversity loss, dwindling water resources, climate change and using 40 per cent of habitable land for human food production, 735 million people still go to bed hungry every night. Obesity rates continue to rise due to increased consumption of sugar and fats and nearly a third of the world lacks access to nutritious food.
“More than 90 per cent of crop varieties have disappeared from farmers’ fields and half of the breeds of many domestic animals have been lost, so that just 10 major global crops — barley, cassava, maize, oil palm, rapeseed, rice, sorghum, soybean, sugar cane and wheat — account for nearly 83 per cent of all harvested food calories,” the paper said.
Nearly 90 million tonnes of seafood are harvested annually from wild-capture marine and freshwater fisheries, providing vital nutrients and proteins to over 3 billion people, WWF said. Additionally, more than 500 million people rely heavily on marine ecosystems and 160 million depend on freshwater fisheries.
But globally, 37.7 per cent of marine fish stocks are considered as overfished, impacting fish populations, reducing resilience of coral reefs and pushing them towards regional tipping points.
“The hidden costs of ill health and environmental degradation in the current food system amount to US$10–15 trillion annually, representing 12 per cent of global gross domestic product (GDP) in 2020,” the report found.
Noting that fossil fuel use is the primary driver of climate change, WWF stated that by 2030, renewable energy needs to be tripled and energy efficiency must be doubled.
“Electrify 20–40 per cent of light-duty vehicles and modernise energy grids around the world to achieve the 1.5oC target,” it observed.
Kirsten Schuijt, director general, WWF International, said in a statement that the next five years are crucial for the future of life on Earth. “The decisions made between now and 2030 will determine whether we can avoid dangerous tipping points and learn to live in harmony with nature, not work against it,” she said.
Supporting the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities is one of the most effective ways to conserve biodiversity on a large scale, given that roughly a quarter of the world’s land area is traditionally owned, managed, used, or occupied by Indigenous Peoples, the paper underlined.
In the lead-up to key summits like 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity also known as COP16, WWF urged governments, businesses and individuals to intensify efforts to protect biodiversity. The report was clear: time is running out, but we still have a chance to act.