Decline of vertebrate populations
December 2018: WWF published its Living Planet 2018 report. It states that between 1970 and 2014 the global vertebrate population declined by 60 per cent. The figure represents the average population decline among 4,000 species. It calls for converging the environmental and human development agenda. and estimates that nature currently provides services worth $125 trillion a year.
Information
WWF’s produced the 12th edition of its biennial Living Planet 2018 publication. The report states that between 1970 and 2014 the global populations of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians declined by 60 per cent. The figure represents the average population decline among 4,000 vertebrate species. It assesses the impact of human activity on wildlife, forests, oceans, rivers, and climate and links human activity to habitat loss, degradation, and overexploitation of wildlife. It concludes that the planet lost about 50 per cent of shallow water corals in the last 30 years and 20 per cent of the Amazon in the last 50 years.
Implications and opportunities
While the report represents a wake-up call to businesses and policymakers, it also offers opportunities to redefine the value, protection, and restoration of nature. It aims to provide a roadmap for action on nature and calls for a convergence of the environment and human development agenda. Rethinking human impact on nature provides security on ensuring fresh air, clean water, food, energy, and medicine supply that is estimated to amount to $125 trillion a year. Therefore, humans depend on habitats and natural resources such as oceans, forests, coral reefs, wetlands, and mangroves. Further, more than a third of global crops are partially pollinated by animals and humans depend on the use of medicinal or aromatic plants. Securing the availability of these resources requires a redesign of environment-human interactions and harvesting methods that provide implications and opportunities for businesses and governments.
Sources
Financial Times. (2018). Humanity’s Calling Card is the Destruction of our Planet. Retrieved from https://www.ft.com/content/ae4d46e8-e0e1-11e8-a8a0-99b2e340ffeb
The Washington Post. (2018). Two Generations of Humans Have Killed off More Than Half the World’s Wildlife Populations, Report Finds. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2018/10/30/two-generations-humans-have-killed-off-more-than-half-worlds-wildlife-report-finds/?utm_term=.c2b135e23f39
WWF: (2018). Living Planet Report. Retrieved from https://www.wwf.org.uk/sites/www.cisl.cam.ac.uk/files/2018-10/LPR2018_Full%20Report.pdf