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South Africa, World, Our Burning Planet

WWF’s latest Living Planet Report gives us five years before it's too late

WWF’s latest Living Planet Report gives us five years before it's too late
Contrast of pristine Amazon forest and deforested land, view from Cerro Azul in Guaviare, Colombia. Recorded 11 May, 2023. (Photo: © camilodiazphotography / WWF Colombia / WWF-UK)
Kristin Engel
By Kristin Engel
22 Oct 2024
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A new report has found the average population sizes of more than 5,000 wildlife species have declined by 73% over 50 years, suggesting the world is approaching irreversible planetary tipping points driven by the twin threats of nature loss and climate change.

‘What happens over the next five years will be crucial for the future of life on Earth,” Dr Deon Nel, head of the environmental programme at World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) South Africa said upon the release of WWF’s Living Planet Report: A System in Peril earlier in October.

The global 2024 report, which measures the average change in population sizes of more than 5,000 vertebrate species, shows a decline of 73% in the average size of monitored wildlife populations over just 50 years, between 1970 and 2020.

planet tipping points wwf living planet report The island of Gabura is getting smaller every year as a result of events caused by climate change. The floodings also makes it harder to cultivate on the island and get access to fresh water. (Photo: Troy Enekvist / WWF-Sweden)



This, according to the WWF, shows that the world is approaching dangerous, irreversible planetary tipping points driven by the twin threats of nature loss and climate change.

The Living Planet Index (LPI) in the report is produced by the Zoological Society of London and is based on almost 35,000 population trends and 5,495 species of vertebrates (amphibians, birds, fish, mammals and reptiles). According to the report, LPI and similar indicators all show that nature is disappearing at an alarming rate.

The strongest declines in monitored wildlife populations were recorded in Latin America and the Caribbean, which declined by 95%, Africa which declined by 76%, Asia-Pacific which declined by 60%, and global freshwater ecosystems which declined by 85%.

WWF cites that habitat loss and degradation, driven primarily by our food system, remain the most reported threat to wildlife populations around the world, followed by overexploitation, invasive species and disease. Climate change is also an additional threat to wildlife populations in parts of the world.

The report found that to reverse current trends, radically scaling up effective and inclusive conservation action on the ground was needed, as well as addressing the drivers of climate change and nature loss – like transforming energy, food and finance systems.

The authors warn that declines in wildlife populations such as these can act as early warning indicators of increasing extinction risk and the potential loss of healthy ecosystems.

They emphasise how critical it is that the world meet its 2030 targets for nature, climate and sustainable development by 2030. 

To do this, the report offers ways to restructure food, energy and financial systems in a way that is equitable and inclusive.

Falling short of our global goals


The linked crises of nature loss and climate change are pushing wildlife and ecosystems beyond their limits, with dangerous global tipping points threatening to damage Earth’s life-support systems and destabilise societies, according to Kirsten Schuijt, director-general of WWF International.

The report found that several tipping points – particularly the Amazon rainforest dieback and the mass die-off of coral reefs – are highly likely if current trends are left to continue, with potentially catastrophic consequences. 

In South Africa, Nel warned that the most dangerous tipping points will relate to large-scale changes in water security as well as our ability to navigate the increasing frequency and intensity of disasters related to climate change (droughts, floods, storms and fires among others).

planet tipping points wwf living planet report Negro River, around the Manaus region, one of the rivers that has suffered most from the drought that has spread across the Amazon in recent months. (Photo: Jacqueline Lisboa / WWF-Brazil)



Despite global ambitions, the authors found that national commitments and actions on the ground around the world fell far short of what was needed to meet targets for 2030 and avoid these tipping points that would make achieving the goals impossible.

The report states that more than half of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets for 2030 will be missed, with 30% of them stalled or getting worse from the 2015 baseline.

In addition, national climate commitments would lead to an average global temperature increase of 3°C by the end of the century, “inevitably triggering multiple catastrophic tipping points”.

The report also states that globally, national biodiversity strategies and action plans were inadequate and lacked financial and institutional support.

Although the situation was desperate, Schuijt said we were not yet past the point of no return. 

“The decisions made and action taken over the next five years will be crucial for the future of life on Earth… We can restore our living planet if we act now,” Schuijt said. 

“Nature is issuing a distress call,” Schuijt said, and if institutions and countries didn’t heed this, the consequences of losing some of the most precious ecosystems, like the Amazon rainforest and coral reefs, would be felt by people and nature around the world.

The situation in South Africa


The report is based on global data, but Nel said the picture would be similar at a national level. 

South Africa, along with 195 countries, signed up to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework in 2022. The countries committed to the target of starting to reverse the decline in biodiversity by 2030 by protecting 30% of land and sea area and restoring 30% of degraded areas. 

But Nel said that between 15-18% of South Africa’s land and sea were protected, and this global commitment needed South Africa to completely re-imagine the scale and approach to conservation. 

Nel told Daily Maverick that current approaches were not enough and would not be able to arrest this decline. 

However, he believed that the new SANParks Vision 2040 was a step in the right direction as the vision focused on transforming SANParks from defenders of fortress conservation areas to stewards of Mega-Living Landscapes that would provide the step-change needed for South Africa to meet the global aspirations under the Global Biodiversity Framework.

planet tipping points wwf living planet report Contrast of pristine Amazon forest and deforested land, view from Cerro Azul in Guaviare, Colombia, 11 May, 2023. (Photo: camilodiazphotography / WWF Colombia / WWF-UK)



However, the country still had a significant financial shortfall for its conservation efforts and consequently, needed to develop ambitious finance mechanisms.

This would require mobilising resources at new scales on the one hand, and operating in much better cost-effective ways on the other. 

Fortunately, Nel said that new financial mechanisms now existed that could mobilise resources at new scales and from new sources— such as the Enduring Earth Partnership and the Dutch Fund for Climate and Development.

Looking to the future


Progress has been made with the doubling in global renewable energy capacity over the past decade, governments have also succeeded in reaching global agreements, such as the Paris Agreement on climate change, the Global Biodiversity Framework and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

But the report notes a huge gap between the finance and action needed, and what is being delivered to meet the targets set for 2030. Schuijt said this was what rendered what happened over the next five years crucial for the future of life on Earth.

Schuijt said that to guide society over the next five years, we had to look to nature itself, and Indigenous Peoples and local communities whose knowledge of and deep respect for nature guided their stewardship of it. 

As the COP16 UN biodiversity conference gets under way in Cali, Colombia today until 1 November 2024, the WWF is calling for countries to produce and implement more ambitious national nature and climate plans.

Key to this is including measures to reduce global overconsumption, halt both domestic and imported biodiversity loss and cut emissions, all in an equitable manner. 

María González, COP16 president-elect and Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development of Colombia said: “The data shows a continuing dramatic trend, with wildlife populations still in decline, the risk of extinction increasing, and the health and integrity of our ecosystems getting worse and worse. Nature and biodiversity, in all its forms, will continue on this path of loss if we do not take ambitious measures.”

WWF has called on both governments and businesses to rapidly eliminate activities with negative impacts on biodiversity and climate, and redirect finance away from harmful practices and towards activities that will deliver on the global goals. DM

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