The World Wildlife Fund's Living Planet Report 2022, released in October 2022, documents a 69% average decline in the relative abundance of monitored vertebrate species populations between 1970 and 2018. The report, produced in collaboration with the Zoological Society of London, analyzed 31,821 populations of 5,230 species.
Latin America and the Caribbean experienced the most dramatic decline at 94%, followed by Africa at 66% and Asia-Pacific at 55%. Freshwater species populations declined by 83%, the steepest drop among all biomes. The primary drivers identified are habitat loss and degradation, overexploitation, invasive species, pollution, and climate change.
The report emphasizes that biodiversity loss and climate change are interconnected crises requiring urgent action. It calls for transformative changes in food production, energy use, and economic systems to reverse nature loss by 2030. The findings are based on the Living Planet Index, a database maintained by the Zoological Society of London.
