Louise Sallé 9:04 a.m., October 13, 2022
The WWF's "Living Planet" report takes stock, every two years, of the state of the populations of mammals, fish, birds, amphibians and reptiles throughout the world.
Between 1970 and 2018 on average, 69% of the animals in a given population have thus disappeared.
Five causes have been identified, including global warming, which is increasingly influencing this decline.
The content of the WWF's "Living Planet" report is unveiled this Thursday.
It is a document published every two years on the state of vertebrates in the world, such as mammals, fish, birds, amphibians or even reptiles.
This year again, the report is bitter.
On average, 69% of animals, for a population observed between 1970 and 2018, have disappeared.
In other words, each group of species in a given geographical area has lost more than two-thirds of its numbers in almost 50 years.
This is quite close to the percentage of the last report, which dates from 2020: 68%.
But this decline remains alarming.
In particular because the causes are multiple and difficult to eradicate.
"It's extremely serious because all these species help us to live", supports Isabelle Autissier, honorary president of WWF-France, guest of Europe 1 Thursday for whom "mass extinction" can happen.
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Five major causes behind the decline of populations of vertebrate species
WWF has identified five causes.
First of all, land use, that is to say the way in which man appropriates nature through deforestation, intensive agriculture, or even urban expansion.
Then, the second cause concerns hunting, poaching and overfishing.
Next comes global warming.
An increasingly important factor, on the way to becoming the first cause of the decline of vertebrate populations.
“Warming leads to the destruction of the environments in which animals live, due to forest fires, as we saw this summer”, deciphers Arnaud Gauffier, director of programs at WWF France.
"It can also be massive drying out," he continues.
"Some French wetlands, such as the Marais poitevin in France, experience droughts which are dramatic every summer, and during which amphibians and fish do not survive", details Arnaud Gauffier.
"The appearance of new diseases, finally, also takes its toll."
"We are faced with a historical responsibility of the human species"
"It's not even a cry of alarm anymore, it's a form of supplication, wake up, let's wake up and let's really act. Today we are faced with a historic responsibility of the human species. To continue to live, in decent conditions, it is absolutely necessary to be sober in energy and to go towards renewables", reports Isabelle Autissier.
95% of leatherback turtles have disappeared in twenty years
After climate change, pollution ranks fourth among the identified causes.
Just before the invasive species, these animals introduced into new regions by the man who moves.
South America is particularly affected by the decline of vertebrates.
In Guyana, for example, 95% of leatherback turtles have disappeared in twenty years, due to accidental fishing.
The WWF launches, on the same day, a petition to ask States to fight against this fall in the number of wild animals, during the next Convention on Biological Diversity, COP15 which will take place in Montreal, Canada, in next December.