World has lost 50% of its wildlife in the past 40 years, say scientists

Wildlife populations around the world have more than halved in just four decades in the face of unsustainable human consumption, a report has warned. Mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish have declined on average by 52 per cent from 1970 to 2010, according to World Wildlife Fund’s Living Planet Report, which uses information on 10,380 populations of 3,038 species to see how global wildlife is faring. Experts from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), which maintains the database of information on the species, said for freshwater creatures, the situation is even worse, with population declines of more than three-quarters (76 per cent) in 40 years.

The scale of biodiversity loss and damage to the very ecosystems that are essential to our existence is alarming.

Professor Ken Norris, director of science at ZSL

The main threats to wildlife populations are loss or damage to their habitat and exploitation through hunting and fishing, the Living Planet Report said, while climate change is already having an impact on wildlife and is set to increase as a threat. In the UK farmland birds have been badly hit by habitat degradation, with major declines in species such as corn buntings. David Nussbaum, chief executive of WWF-UK, said: “The scale of destruction highlighted in this report should be a wake-up call to us all.”

Clearly a growing population is going to be putting increasing stress on the planet’s resources, it’s why we’re calling now for a change in approach to consume more wisely and waste less.

Mike Barrett, director of science and policy at WWF-UK

Science wwf