Nature in freefall: WWF says wildlife populations plunge 73pc since 1970
Summary
- The latest WWF Living Planet report highlights a severe global decline in wildlife populations, averaging a 73% decrease from 1970 to 2022, but notes encouraging recoveries in species like tigers and bluefin tuna.
- While conservation success stories show potential for rapid biodiversity recovery, the report stresses major systemic changes are needed in energy, food and finance to halt ongoing declines.
- Efforts in these areas are deemed essential for restoring global biodiversity, which underpins significant portions of the global economy and human well-being.
- The report emphasizes the urgency of leveraging positive tipping points in these sectors to drive sustainable change.
First Published: Friday, 09 Oct 2026 7:00 AM MYT
LONDON, Oct 9 — Nature is in “freefall” across the world, but recoveries in species from tigers to tuna provide hope for reversing declines, conservationists have said, PA Media/dpa reported.
Conservation charity WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) has unveiled its latest Living Planet report, which shows that wildlife populations have declined globally by nearly three-quarters since 1970.
There have also been signs of recovery, including in the United Kingdom (UK) where otters, beavers, white tailed eagles and bluefin tuna have all staged comebacks, while captive breeding and reintroductions have helped European bison return from extinction in the wild to 10 countries in just over 50 years.
WWF said wildlife recovery can take place “remarkably quickly” with rapid action, but warned it would be a mistake to think conservation alone would enable a global recovery of nature.
Major shifts are needed in the energy, food and finance systems that are driving declines, the conservation charity said, with signs that positive “tipping points” are already under way in energy at least.
Figures from the Living Planet index analysis carried out with the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) as part of the report show wildlife populations worldwide declined by an average of 73 per cent between 1970 and 2022.
The assessment, which measures changes in the sizes of 35,803 populations of 5,790 species of birds, fish, mammals, reptiles and amphibians, using methods ranging from camera traps and scat analysis to aerial surveys, also found that half of the studied populations were stable or increasing.
The report also details success stories, ranging from concerted conservation work leading to a 70 per cent increase in wild tiger numbers since 2010, to revivals in sea otters in North America, southern African elephants, green turtles, and Atlantic and Pacific bluefin tuna.
It shows “there’s grounds for hope”, according to WWF’s chief scientific adviser Mike Barrett, even though “nature remains in freefall” at the global scale.
The report details how Atlantic bluefin tuna, a migratory species that was once a common sight off the UK coasts, had seen numbers fall by 80 per cent by 2010 and was listed as endangered.
But action by nations and industry helped it recover to a point where it is not overfished or of major concern, and it is once more being seen and caught in British waters.
Meanwhile, otters were pushed “right to the brink” of extinction in the UK but are now relatively common across the country while there have been successes with reintroductions of species that had been lost altogether including beavers and white-tailed eagles, Barrett said.
He said: “These are examples of species that can recover, can be reintroduced and recover when we actually do the right thing, when the right policies, the right conservation measures, the right protections, are in place.
“But we have got to keep emphasising that these are bright spots against an overall picture that is still one of decline.”
This decline is being driven by threats from climate change mainly caused by burning fossil fuels, to agriculture, which is the largest cause of habitat loss, and financial systems driving investment into activities that harm nature.
Yet nature’s recovery is crucial, as it is vital for food, clean air, fresh water, the climate, and as a source of medicines, and underpins around half the global economy, some US$58 trillion in 2023, the Living Planet report says.
Barrett said: “It’s clear that global biodiversity loss is now widely recognised as an existential threat to economic stability and security and human wellbeing.
“Given the appalling damage that humanity has inflicted on the planet over many decades, it is a remarkable truth that we have still got a way out.
“Now, that window of opportunity is narrowing, but it does remain open.”
He warned that nature could not recover once negative “tipping points” are passed, such as the collapse of the world’s warm water coral reefs.
But the same process of tipping points — where momentum builds until it crosses a threshold and change accelerates and becomes irreversible — can happen in a positive way, the report says.
Already the energy transition has passed a positive tipping point, as oil, gas and coal are replaced by clean technology such as solar power and electric vehicles, the conservationists argued.
It is clear what levers are needed to tip food and finance systems into accelerating change for good, including nature-positive farming, sustainable diets and redirecting financial flow away from damaging agricultural subsidies and fossil fuels, the report said.
It will require governments and businesses to work for long-term interests, not short-term gains, for local and indigenous communities to have legal rights and authority over the lands they manage, while farmers and fossil fuel workers need support to change jobs and activities, WWF said. — Bernama-PA Media/dpa
