World Wildlife Fund: Wildlife declined by 60% globally in 40 years

The biggest declines were among creatures that live in fresh water

mass extinction of species. Hedges and his colleagues scrutinized aerial photography and Landsat images from 1988 to 2016, finding that forests covered 4.4 percent of Haiti’s land in 1988. That plunged to 0.32 percent by 2016.

John Cecil, vice president for stewardship at New Jersey Audubon, said that he had not yet seen the World Wildlife Fund report, but that it was in line with previous research.

“We’re finding a broad decline in species across the board,” Cecil said, noting exceptions, such as white-tailed deer and Canada geese. “There are a lot of species out there not threatened with immediate extinction, but compared to 50 or 100 years ago, their populations have declined dramatically.”

Previously, habitat loss was by far the biggest driver of species loss, he said. Now, he cites climate change and invasive species as among the top reasons. Both alter the habitat, for example, of birds who can no longer find the insects they once fed on or plant life they depended on because “they’re all interconnected.” A member of the Bageni family rests near family members in the Mikeno Sector of Virunga National Park on Sept. 23, 2014. Gorillas are one of my species that have declined in the last several decades.

“The birds are failing where the non-native species are taking over,” Cecil said. “We’re seeing major changes. These global trends are consistent in the United States and East Coast.”

More positively, the World Wildlife Fund report said habitat restoration and other actions have worked, citing population increases in giant pandas, mountain gorillas and endangered dolphins.

It singled out the U.S. Endangered Species Act of 1973 as helping “an estimated 99 percent of listed species avoid extinction.”

Habitat suitable for mammals dropped 22 percent

from 1970 to 2010, with the greatest declines in the Caribbean, where it exceeded 60 percent.

The index measuring extinction risk for birds, mammals, amphibians, corals and cycads (an ancient group of plants) showed declines for all groups, with species moving more rapidly toward

extinction.

Humans have already pushed some areas beyond their limits through climate change, loss of biosphere, nitrogen and phosphorous flows, and land-use change.

Ninety percent of the world’s seabirds are estimated to have plastic fragments in their stomachs.