Jea Nicole Jacot

An environmental non-profit organization revealed a ‘catastrophic’ loss in monitored global wildlife populations over the past-half century through a report released on October 10.


The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Living Planet Index found that the 35,000 populations under review had plummeted by 73 percent since 1970, mostly due to human-induced activities.  

Freshwater populations have suffered the biggest loss, falling by 85%, followed by terrestrial (69%) and marine vertebrates (56%).    

At a regional level, Latin America and the Caribbean experienced an accelerating decline in wildlife populations, with a 95% drop.

Habitat loss and degradation, driven mainly by the global food system, pose the greatest threat to wildlife populations around the world, followed by overexploitation, climate change, pollution, invasive species, and disease.

Looming ‘tipping point’

The report further stressed the importance of addressing the “interconnected” crises of climate change and environmental degradation together, and it warned of significant "tipping points" looming for certain ecosystems.

It stated that tipping points can begin “gradually,” but become “potentially irreversible.”  

Several studies suggest that a tipping point may loom if 20–25% of the Amazon rainforest were destroyed and approximately 14–17% has already been deforested.

 It would emit large amounts of carbon into the atmosphere and disrupt weather patterns globally.

"This is not just about wildlife, it's about the essential ecosystems that sustain human life," said Daudi Sumba, chief conservation officer at WWF.

“The changes could be irreversible, with devastating consequences for humanity,” he said, citing the example of deforestation in the Amazon, which could “shift this critical ecosystem from a carbon sink to a carbon source.”

Having been used as an international reference, the report would be highlighted in the 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN’s Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP16).

It opened in Calia, Columbia last October 21 and is set to end on November 1.

A delegation of Filipino indigenous peoples,  the Indigenous Peoples and Biodiversity Coalition Philippines (IPBC), will put forward their biodiversity action plan at the said conference.

The Philippines is considered to be one of the most vulnerable countries to the impacts of climate change.

The country scored 46.91 in the 2024 edition of the World Risk Report.

It ranked first in the World Risk Index (WRI) among 193 countries, counting all member-states of the United Nations and 99% of the world population.