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The global wildlife population has plunged 73% in 50 years, the Living Planet Report 2024 has said, a sharp rise from the 69% decline reported two years ago. The highest decline was reported in freshwater ecosystems (85%), followed by terrestrial (69%) and marine (56%) ones, said the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)’s biennial report. The report called habitat loss and degradation, driven primarily by food systems, the biggest threat.
It said overexploitation, invasive species, and diseases, combined with the effects of the climate crisis were pushing wildlife and ecosystems beyond their limits. “Nature is issuing a distress call,” Kirsten Schuijt, director general of WWF International, said in a statement released with the report. “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.
” In Asia Pacific, which includes India, pollution is an additional threat to wildlife populations, with the region recording an average decline of 60%. The report used the Living Planet Index (LPI), a global dataset featuring 32,000 populations of 5,230 species provided by the Zoological Society of London, to arrive at its findings. Due to varying types and levels of pressures placed on nature in different regions, the decline trends are different, the report said.
The steepest declines were seen in South America, the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific. In both Europe and North America, large-scale impacts on nature were already apparent before the index started in 1970, explaining the lower negative trend in these regions. While the report did not have India-specific data, WWF India officials said that mammals, birds, bees, amphibians, and freshwater turtles recorded the steepest decline.
The report highlighted the decline of the three vulture species in India — white-rumped vulture (gyps bengalensis), Indian vulture (gyps indicus), and slender-billed vulture (gyps tenuirostris) — as alarming. These declines, the report said, can act as early warning indicators of increasing extinction risk and potential loss of healthy ecosystems. “When ecosystems are damaged they can become more vulnerable to tipping points,” it said.
The report called for concerted action to help plateau, if not reverse, the scale of this decline. It highlighted some steps undertaken by the Indian government that has helped stabilise some species through “proactive government initiatives, effective habitat management, and robust scientific monitoring, combined with community engagement and public support”. It cited the example of the country’s wild tiger population.
“The All-India Tiger Estimation 2022 recorded a minimum of 3,682 tigers, a significant increase from the 2,967 estimated in 2018...
Additionally, the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change (MoEF&CC) recently launched the first Snow Leopard Population Assessment in India (SPAI), which systematically evaluated 70% of their potential range,” the report said. It called for action at the global level. “We have global agreements and solutions to set nature on the path to recovery by 2030, but so far there’s even little progress on delivery,” the report said.
The world is falling short on several targets: Over half of the SDG targets for 2030 will be missed, with 30% of them stalled or getting worse from the 2015 baseline; national climate commitments would lead to an average global temperature increase of almost 3°C by the end of the century; and national biodiversity strategies and action plans are inadequate and lack financial and institutional support. “We need action that meets the scale of the challenge. This means more, and more effective, conservation efforts, while also systematically addressing the major drivers of nature loss.
That will require nothing less than a transformation of our food, energy, and finance systems,” the report said ahead of the COP29 summit in November and the UN Biodiversity Summit later. The report warned of approaching dangerous tipping points. “When cumulative impacts reach a threshold, the change becomes self-perpetuating, resulting in substantial, often abrupt and potentially irreversible change — a tipping point,” it said.
Tipping points in the natural world occur when individual or combined pressures such as habitat degradation, land-use change, overharvesting, or climate change push the system beyond a critical threshold. “A number of tipping points are highly likely if current trends are left to continue, with potentially catastrophic consequences. These include global tipping points that pose grave threats to humanity and most species, and would damage Earth’s life-support systems and destabilize societies everywhere,” it said, citing examples of the Amazon die-off (which could lead to catastrophic release of carbon dioxide), melting of the polar ice sheet (sea level rise) and coral reef die off (which could impact fisheries).
“The choices and actions we make over the next five years will be crucial for the planet’s future,” said Ravi Singh, secretary general and CEO of WWF-India. “The Living Planet Report 2024 highlights the interconnectedness of nature, climate, and human well-being. The choices and actions we make over the next five years will be crucial for the planet’s future.
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