Two thirds of the world's wildlife are extinct in less than 50 years

The world has lost more than two-thirds of the number of wild animals in less than 50 years, especially due to human activities, according to the warnings of the World Fund for the Protection of Nature, which warned Thursday of the dangers of this deterioration on the future of humanity.

Between 1970 and 2016, 68% of wildlife were lost, according to the Living Planet Index published by the World Wide Fund for Nature Conservation every two years and used as a reference tool.

This is mainly due to the elimination of the natural habitats of these animals, especially for agriculture, in a direction that may facilitate the emergence of new epidemics, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, through contact between humans and animals, which would facilitate the transmission of viruses from one sex to another.

The index, which is being prepared in cooperation with the Zoological Society in London, takes into account about four thousand species of vertebrate animals distributed among about 21 thousand animal groups around the world.

It recorded a new acceleration in the decline of biodiversity, after the rate of decline was 60% in the report issued in 2018 for the period between 1970 and 2014.

"For thirty years, we have seen an acceleration in the decline and there is continuous progress in the wrong direction," said World Wide Fund for Nature Director Marco Lambertini.

"We are witnessing humanity's destruction of nature (...) this is an actual environmental massacre," he added.

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