 |
| Source: WWF |
The Living Planet Report 2018 has been
published this week, the twelfth edition of the report. Every two years, the
WWF (one of the world’s largest independent conservation organizations with a
global network active in 100 countries) publishes the report so as to give an
indication of the current health and state of our planet (including
biodiversity, ecosystems, and demand on natural resources and what it means for
humans and wildlife), the trends in global biodiversity and wildlife abundance,
and the impact of human activity. It is a science-based analysis, assisted by
multiple indicators including the Living Planet Index (LPI), the Species
Habitat Index (SHI), the IUCN Red List Index (RLI), the Biodiversity Intactness
Index (BII), the Planetary Boundaries, and the Ecological Footprint. The report
comprises of a variety of research in order to provide a comprehensive view of
the health of the Earth. The state of global biodiversity is done by measuring
the population abundance of thousands of vertebrate species around the world. The
Living Planet Report tracked more than 16,704 populations of 4,005 vertebrate
species of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians. It uses the
Ecological Footprint and additional complementary measures to explore the
changing state of global biodiversity and human consumption.
Disturbing
results and statistics
The results and the scientific evidence
are shocking. Nature has continually warned us: unsustainable human activity is
pushing the planet’s natural systems that support life on Earth to the edge.
The report
warns us seriously too: “Earth is losing biodiversity at a rate seen only
during mass extinctions.” Over recent decades, human activity has also severely
impacted the habitats and natural resources wildlife and humanity depend on,
such as oceans, forests, coral reefs, wetlands, and mangroves.
According to WWF’s Living Planet Report
2018:
·
Human
activities are primarily responsible for the main threats to species identified
in the report, including habitat loss,
degradation, and over-exploitation of wildlife, such as overfishing and overhunting.
·
On
average, we’ve seen an astonishing 60% decline in the size of populations of
mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians in just over 40 years (between
1970 and 2014). Over-exploitation of ecological resources by humanity is thus
worrisome.
 |
| Source: WWF |
·
Current
rates of species extinction are now up to 1,000 times higher than before human
involvement in animal ecosystems became a factor.
·
Species
population declines are especially pronounced in the tropics, with South and
Central America suffering the most dramatic decline, an 89% loss compared to
1970.
·
Freshwater
species numbers have also declined dramatically, with the Freshwater Index
showing an 83% decline since 1970, due mainly as a result of overfishing,
pollution, and climate change.
·
The
Earth is estimated to have lost about 50% of its shallow water corals in the
past 30 years.
·
90%
of seabirds have plastics in their stomachs, compared with 5% in 1960.
·
A
fifth (20%) of the Amazon has disappeared in just 50 years.
 |
| Source: Wikipedia |
·
African
elephants have declined in number in Tanzania by 60% in just five years between
2009 and 2014, primarily due to ivory poaching.
·
Deforestation
in Borneo, designed to make way for timber and palm oil plantations, led to the
loss of 100,000 orangutans between 1999 and 2015.
·
The
number of polar bears is expected to decline by 30% by 2050 as global warming
causes Arctic ice to melt, making their habitats increasingly dangerous.
 |
| Source: Science Daily |
·
Only
a quarter of the world's land is untouched by humans, who are increasing food
production and use of natural resources.
·
America
is among the countries using the most natural resources. North America and
Canada consume more than seven global hectares per person.
·
The
report also focuses on the value of nature to people's health and that of our
societies and economies: Globally, nature provides services worth around $125
trillion a year, while also helping ensure the supply of fresh air, clean
water, food, energy, medicines, and more.
Thus, from the abovementioned statistics,
it is clear that the impact human activity (how we feed, fuel, and finance our
lives) has on the world’s wildlife, forests, oceans, rivers, and climate is troublesome.
It is taking an unprecedented toll on wildlife, wild places, and the natural resources
we need to survive. According to Global Footprint Network, humanity is
currently using the resources of 1.7 planets to provide the goods and services
we demand when we only have one Earth.
Is
it too late?
Current efforts to protect the natural
world are not keeping up with the speed of this destruction. We’re facing a
rapidly closing window for action and the urgent need for everyone to cooperatively
rethink and redefine how we value, protect, and restore nature. This generation
may be last to save nature, the report warns. But, we still have time to act;
there is still hope. In order to ensure a sustainable future for all living
things, we need to urgently curtail the loss of nature. In essence, the Living
Planet Report 2018 highlights the opportunity the global community has to
protect and restore nature leading up to 2020, an imperative year when leaders
are expected to review the progress made on landmark multilateral pacts to
solve global challenges including the Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris
Climate Agreement, and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
Marco Lambertini, Director General WWF
International, is of the belief that “the nature conservation agenda is not
only about securing the future of tigers, pandas, whales and all the amazing
diversity of life we love and cherish on Earth. It’s bigger than that. There
cannot be a healthy, happy and prosperous future for people on a planet with a
destabilized climate, depleted oceans and rivers, degraded land and empty
forests, all stripped of biodiversity, the web of life that sustains us all. In
the next years, we need to urgently transition to a net carbon-neutral society
and halt and reverse nature loss – through green finance, clean energy and
environmentally friendly food production. We must also preserve and restore
enough land and ocean in a natural state. Few people have the chance to be a
part of truly historic transformations. This is ours”.
You can read more about the report here:
https://wwf.panda.org/knowledge_hub/all_publications/living_planet_report_2018/
https://wwf.panda.org/knowledge_hub/all_publications/living_planet_report_2018/
References
WWF. 2018. Living Planet
Report - 2018: Aiming Higher. Grooten,
M. and Almond, R.E.A.(Eds). WWF, Gland, Switzerland.
