World wildlife losses laid bare

WWF counts cost of human consumption on nature in call for global deal

Global wildlife populations have fallen by 60% since 1970 as humans overuse natural resources, drive climate change and pollute the planet, a report warns.

WWF has called for an ambitious “global deal” for nature and people, similar to the international Paris Agreement to tackle climate change, as the conservation charity’s new report spelled out the damage being done to the natural world.

Only a quarter of the world’s land area is free from the impacts of human activity and by 2050 that will have fallen to just a tenth, the Living Planet Report 2018 says.

Overall, populations of more than 4,000 species of mammals, reptiles, birds, fish and amphibians have declined by an average of 60% between 1970 and 2014, the most recent year for which data is available.

Tropical areas have seen the worst declines, with an 89% fall in populations monitored in Latin America and the Caribbean since 1970.

From hedgehogs and puffins to elephants, rhinos and polar bears, wildlife is in decline, due to the loss of habitats, poaching, pollution of land and seas and rising global temperatures, the Living Planet report warns.

“Exploding” levels of human consumption are driving the impacts on nature, with overexploitation of natural resources such as overfishing, cutting down forests to grow crops such as soy and palm oil and the use of pesticides in agriculture.

Climate change and plastic pollution are also significant and growing threats.

All human economic activity ultimately depends on nature, the report said, with globally natural resources estimated to provide services worth £97 trillion a year.

With the world set to review progress on sustainable development and conserving biodiversity under UN agreements by 2020, there is a window of opportunity for action in the next two years, the conservation group argues.

A new global deal should be secured, backed by strong commitments from governments and businesses.

WWF chief executive Tanya Steele said: “We are the first generation to know we are destroying our planet and the last one that can do anything about it.

“Our wanton destruction of nature, coupled with the brutal chaos of climate change, is the biggest threat to humanity.”

DEBRIS: A gannet chick in a nest largely made of plastic as a new WWF report highlights humans’ impact