World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has issued the 2024 edition of its Living Planet Report. The findings reveal that the average size of monitored wildlife populations has decreased by 73% from 1970-2020, as measured by the Living Planet Index (LPI). The heaviest declines are reported for freshwater populations (85%), followed by terrestrial (69%) and marine populations (56%).

These findings are based on nearly 35,000 population trends and 5,495 species of amphibians, birds, fish, mammals, and reptiles, represented by the LPI – a measure of the state of the world’s biodiversity, provided by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL). The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) used the LPI as an indicator of progress towards its 2011-2020 Aichi Biodiversity Targets. The Index is also an indicator in the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF).

Titled, ‘2024 Living Planet Report: A System in Peril,’ the report flags that at 95%, the steepest declines in monitored wildlife populations are found in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), Africa (76%), and Asia-Pacific (60%).

At the same time, some populations have stabilized or increased due to effective conservation efforts. Among conservation success stories, the report highlights an increase in the sub-population of mountain gorillas of around 3% per year between 2010-2016 in East Africa’s Virunga mountains and an increase from 0 to 6,800 in bison populations across central Europe between 1970 and 2020.

The report identifies habitat loss and degradation, driven primarily by our food system, as the main threat to wildlife populations around the world. Other key drivers include overexploitation, invasive species, and disease.

The report argues that declines in wildlife populations can act as an early warning indicator of extinction risk because when damaged, ecosystems can become more vulnerable to tipping points, reaching a threshold when a change becomes potentially irreversible.

The report warns that while there are global agreements and goals to halt and reverse biodiversity loss (the GBF), limit global warming to 1.5ºC (the Paris Agreement on climate change), and improve human well-being (the SDGs), there has been a lack of urgency and little progress to avoid dangerous tipping points.

To meet the scale of the challenge, the report calls for more, and more effective, conservation efforts, along with action to systematically address the major drivers of nature loss through a transformation of our food, energy, and finance systems. Specific recommendations include:

• For countries to develop and implement more ambitious national nature and climate plans that include measures to reduce global overconsumption, halt domestic and imported biodiversity loss, and reduce emissions – all in an equitable manner;
• For governments to unlock greater public and private funding to allow action at scale and to better align their climate, nature, and sustainable development policies and actions; and
• For governments and businesses to rapidly eliminate activities with negative impacts on biodiversity and climate, and redirect finance away from harmful practices towards activities that will support the global goals.

The report was released on 9 October, ahead of the 2024 UN Biodiversity Conference (CBD COP 16) and the 2024 UN Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC COP 29). [Publication: 2024 Living Planet Report: A System in Peril] [Executive Summary] [Key Findings] [Online Report] [WWF Press Release]