World lost 2/3 of its animals in 50 years: WWF report

A rhino that was found dead in Chitwan National Park this week is believed to have been killed with a gunshot, the first rhino to be lost to poachers in Nepal in four years. Photo: Kunda Dixit

In its latest Living Planet Report 2020 released on Thursday, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has revealed that there has been a two-thirds decline in the global populations of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish in the past 50 years. 

WWF warns in its annual report that this environmental destruction is responsible for the emergence of zoonotic diseases such as Covid-19 and future vulnerability to pandemics.

Shocking as the news is, Nepal has been praised internationally as a model for nature conservation and its ability to manage people and parks relatively well despite problems of poverty, population growth and pressure on land.

“We have a lot to be optimistic about in Nepal because of our past achievements, but we cannot be complacent,” says WWF Nepal director Ghana Gurung. “Because of our smaller area, things can go wrong very quickly. We have to keep being vigilant.”

The warning comes amidst reports of an upsurge in poaching since the Covid-19 lockdowns began nearly six months ago. Six musk deer were found killed in traps in Sagarmatha National Park in April. There was a seizure of tiger and leopard pelts as well as bones this week in western Nepal from poachers who were taking them to China. 

And on Tuesday, officials at the Chitwan National Park confirmed that a dead rhino found there had a bullet hole in its head. They said the rhino was probably shot and wounded by poachers and jumped into the river before they could remove its horn. Nepal had marked its fourth year with zero rhino poaching recently.

“The Living Planet Report shows how even a vast continent like South America can be threatened with serious biodiversity loss. Nepal has a rich genetic pool in a much smaller area, so we have to invest even more in its protection, especially in the post-pandemic era,” Gurung added.

Nepal’s biodiversity faces a threat from land cover changes, destruction of natural habitats from infrastructure and settlements which have been exacerbated by the impact of the climate crisis. On top of that, the post Covid-19 economic crisis means budgets for nature protection are tighter at a time when it is needed even more.

Forest loss in Nepal’s Tarai has also impacted on increasing the danger of flooding, and reducing the ground water recharge. Felling trees for new infrastructure projects in the future will be a challenge to nature conservation.

The new WWF report also contains the Living Planet Index (LPI) developed by the Zoological Society London (ZSL) which lists factors that increase the risk of pandemics — including land-use change and the use and trade of wildlife. These were some of the reasons why there has been a 68% decline in global vertebrate species populations between 1970 and 2016. 

“The Living Planet Report 2020 underlines how humanity’s increasing destruction of nature is having catastrophic impacts not only on wildlife populations but also on human health and all aspects of our lives,” said Marco Lambertini, Director General of WWF International. “These serious declines in wildlife species populations are an indicator that nature is unravelling.”

The Living Planet Report 2020 presents an overview of the state of our natural world through the LPI, which tracks trends in global wildlife abundance. It shows that the main cause of the dramatic decline in species populations on land observed in the LPI is habitat loss and degradation, including deforestation, driven by how we as humanity produce food. 

Endangered species captured in the LPI include the eastern lowland gorilla, whose numbers in the Kahuzi-Biega National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo have seen an estimated 87%  decline between 1994-2015 mostly due to illegal hunting. The population of the African grey parrot in southwest Ghana fell by 99% in the past 300 years due to trapping for the wild bird trade and habitat loss.

The LPI, which tracked almost 21,000 populations of more than 4,000 vertebrate species between 1970 and 2016, also shows that wildlife populations found in freshwater habitats have suffered a decline of 84%. The sturgeon on China’s Yangtze river which declined by 97% in the past 25 years due to dams on the waterway.

The LPR 2020 shows that without further efforts to counteract habitat loss and degradation, global biodiversity will continue to decline. The report makes clear that stabilising and reversing the loss of nature caused by humans’ destruction of natural habitats will only be possible if bolder, more ambitious conservation efforts are embraced and transformational changes made to the way we produce and consume food. 

The Living Planet Report 2020 is being launched a week before the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly, where leaders are expected to virtually review the progress made on the Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Climate Agreement and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). 

Using data from 4,392 species and 20,811 populations, the 2020 global Living Planet Index shows an average 68% decline in monitored populations. The report is the 13^th edition of WWF’s biennial flagship publication. 

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