Vertebrate animal populations continue to decline, warns WWF

A leatherback turtle laying eggs under the supervision of members of the Kwata association, on a beach in Remire-Montjoly, in French Guyana.

-

• Every two years, WWF publishes its

  Living Planet

  report

  on the state of health of the Earth and the impacts of human activities on it.

  The primary indicator is the LPI, which tracks the abundance of 21,000 vertebrate animal populations around the world.

• In 2018, the

  Living Planet

  report

  estimated the average loss of abundance between 1970 and 2014 at 60% among the populations monitored.

  It's even worse in this new edition, with an estimated decline of 68% between 1970 and 2016.

• Our lifestyles, and more particularly our food production, are at the heart of the problem, according to the NGO.

  The loss and destruction of habitat and the overexploitation of species are in any case the first two pressures weighing on wild life.

Less 52% in 2014, less 58% in 2016, less 60% in 2018 ... Every two years since 1998, the international NGO WWF has published its

report

on the state of health of the planet and the impacts of human activities on this one.

The main indicator is the Living Planet Index (LPI), which the NGO calculates with the support of the Zoological Society of London.

“It measures the abundance of global populations of wild vertebrates (fish, birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles), details Véronique Andrieux, CEO of WWF France.

It is calculated from thousands of data on the scientific monitoring of 21,000 populations of more than 4,000 species of wild vertebrates.

"

A decline that continues

It is this indicator that has plummeted continuously in recent years, and which still tumbles in the 13th edition of the report published by WWF on Thursday.

Here we are at 68% of average decline in populations of wild vertebrates studied between 1970 and 2016 [date of the latest data on which this report is based].

Arnaud Gauffier, program director of WWF France, invites us not to overinterpret this figure.

“That doesn't mean we've lost 68% of the world's animals since 1970,” he insists.

The figure is only for the vertebrate populations that we tracked.

Or a very small part of the living.

“Then,” he continues, “the number of species monitored varies with each report - the one published this Thursday includes 400 species and 4,870 populations more than that of 2018 - which must be taken into account when comparing the editions to each other. to others.

"

The

report even mentions some species whose populations are increasing in France (the monk vulture, the flamingo, the lynx or the salmon) and abroad (the North Pacific humpback whale, the tiger in Nepal, the giant panda, the giraffe populations of Kruger National Park in South Africa).

"A maddening fall in Central and South America"

But the good news is matched by the bad.

In France, "the house sparrow has experienced a 60% decline in its population since 1960 and the Guyana leatherback turtle has almost disappeared due to poaching of its eggs, collisions, beach erosion, accidental captures" , takes Véronique Andrieux for example.

She also cites, internationally, the eastern lowland gorillas, in decline of 87% in the Kahuzi-Biega National Park, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

And then there is this general trend, which is indeed a decrease in the abundance of populations of wild animals being tracked.

Minus 68% is just the average.

It hides disparities from one region to another.

“In recent years, the rate of decline has slowed down a bit in Europe and North America, in particular because the biodiversity protection policies put in place in recent years have started to bear fruit, notes Arnaud Gauffier.

But in Central and South America, things are plunging at a maddening speed.

"The populations of wild vertebrate animals studied in this corner of the globe actually fell by 94% between 1970 and 2016," the largest decline ever observed in a region ", underlines the

report

.

Climate change, not (yet) the first push

The causes of these drops in biodiversity are multiple. 

lists five, all related to human activity.

In order of their impacts: habitat loss and degradation, overexploitation of resources [mainly fishing, but also hunting, poaching], pollution, invasive species and diseases.

And, finally, climate change.

If the latter is still at the end of the list today, WWF nonetheless recalls that “the effects of climate change on species were extremely rare thirty years ago, while they are still commonplace today.

"

The proof in 2020, with a record increase in mega-fires of 13%, illustrates the director general of WWF France.

Those that ravaged Australia between late 2019 and early 2020 would have resulted in the deaths of a billion animals counting only vertebrates, according to University of Sydney estimates.

“Climate change could become the first pressure on living things if nothing is done,” continues Véronique Andrieux.

Even with significant efforts to mitigate climate change, 20% of wild vertebrates are at risk of extinction by 2100 due to global warming.

"

Agricultural production at the heart of the problem

In the meantime, this thirteenth edition of

focuses on our global food production system

.

We come back to the first factor of direct loss of biodiversity: habitat loss and degradation.

We are talking here, mainly, of land use change in favor, in particular, of intensive agriculture and industrial breeding.

“80% of global deforestation is due to agricultural extension,” begins Arnaud Gauffier.

This continues today and is even accentuated in certain areas such as Brazil, where the fires in the Amazon are mainly of human origin and with the aim of extending agricultural land ”.

But all of our ecosystems are threatened by food production at large, not just forests.

“The savannahs [that of Cerrado, for example, in Brazil still, nibbled to allow the cultivation of soybeans], but also the wetlands, the seabed via deep-sea fishing, which damages habitats, or even the coral reefs with certain peaches, still practiced, with dynamite or cyanide.

"

Another worrying figure for WWF: "52% of agricultural land worldwide is degraded in one form or another (salinization [accumulation of salts in the soil], erosion, loss of fertility)".

“This is a big issue, because by managing to restore these lands, we reduce the farmers' need to expand into the forest or other natural ecosystems,” explains Arnaud Gauffier.

There are successes in this area.

For example, the Loess Plateau in China, which has been restored and is now much more productive than it was in the past.

This would have to be achieved in Brazil on the nearly 30 million hectares * of grasslands which are today estimated to be degraded and unproductive.

The pressure on the Amazon and the Cerrado would then be reduced.

"

Act on different fronts

This is one of the solutions to stem the loss of abundance of biodiversity.

There are others, according to “Bending the curve”, an international coalition of around forty institutions, research centers and NGOs (including WWF) which publishes this Thursday in

, an analysis of the various action scenarios that would make it possible to stem the fall in terrestrial biodiversity.

"In the end, just one would allow us to go back above the zero level - which corresponds to the current state of biodiversity - by 2100," says Arnaud Gauffier.

It is the one that combines actions in different directions.

Both the extension and better management of the network of protected natural areas, the search for agricultural production with less impact on the environment and, finally, a reduction in our consumption, in particular of animal proteins.

"

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