Wildlife populations down 73% in 50 years, says WWF

Nature is in peril like never before, according to a major new report by the conservation charity WWF.

It’s the latest study to reveal the extent of the global biodiversity crisis – and condenses the loss into one shocking figure.

On average, wildlife populations have declined by nearly three quarters – 73% – over the 50 years to 2020. The main causes include human-driven habitat loss, pollution and climate change.

Plunging populations include chinstrap penguins in Antarctica, hawksbill turtles on the Great Barrier Reef and Amazon river dolphins in Brazil.

Two years ago world leaders met in Montreal for the COP15 biodiversity summit and committed to halt and reverse nature loss. But ahead of this month’s COP16 summit in Colombia, the charity says what action they take in the next five years will determine the future of life on Earth.

Tanya Steele, chief executive of WWF UK, told Channel 4 News: “This is a catastrophic report, it is a huge wake up call and it demonstrates huge loss for wildlife which highlights grave consequences for all of us. Ultimately, with losing so many wild areas we are pushing our ecosystems to the brink. And unless we take steps right now, we have no hope of ensuring the health  and stability of humanity on earth.”

The WWF’s Living Planet Index, which has been running for decades, looks at how animal populations have changed around the world since 1970. It now tracks more than 5,000 species of animals in 35,000 different groups around the world. It measures the average change in these animal populations, so it does not mean that the world has lost three-quarters of its overall wildlife.

Species that live in the world’s freshwater rivers and lakes have suffered the biggest declines. Population sizes shrinking by a staggering 85%, on average, in half a century. An example is the Chinook salmon in California’s Sacramento River – where dams block the way to their spawning sites. They have seen an 88% fall in numbers since 1970.

But it’s not all bleak news – conservation work has seen successes.

Like the European bison. It became extinct in the wild in 1927, but reintroductions mean there are now nearly 7,000 of them across Europe. The researchers also warn that the world is approaching several dangerous tipping points. That’s when an ecosystem has degraded so much that it may simply never recover.

These include the melting of polar ice sheets, the loss of coral reefs and the destruction of the Amazon rainforest.

Under UK law, our government has a legal duty to halt the decline of wildlife by 2030.

A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs said: “We cannot address the urgency of the nature crises without coordinated global action.”

The spokesperson said they were putting “climate and nature at the heart of our foreign policy, including appointing a new Nature Envoy, and are working with our partners across the world to build global ambition on nature”.

Words by Claire Wilde