Living Planet Report (Biodiversity Report) 2018

Living Planet Report (Biodiversity Report) 2018

• The Living Planet Report, WWF’s flagship publication released every two years, is a comprehensive study of trends in global biodiversity and the health of the planet earth.
• The Living Planet Report documents the state of the planet—including biodiversity, ecosystems, and demand on natural resources—and what it means for humans and wildlife.
• The Living Planet Report 2018 is the 12^th edition of the report and provides the scientific evidence to what nature has been telling us repeatedly: unsustainable human activity is pushing the planet’s natural systems that support life on Earth to the edge.
• Report Through multiple indicators including the Living Planet Index (LPI), provided by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), the report shows us the urgent need for a new global deal for nature and people with clear, ambitious goals, targets and metrics, to reverse the devastating trend of biodiversity loss currently impacting the one planet we all call home.
• The report presents a sobering picture of the impact of human activity on the world’s wildlife, forests, oceans, rivers, and climate.

Report card:

• The latest index shows an overall decline of 60% in population sizes between 1970 and 2014.
• Data covers over 16,700 populations belonging to 4,000 species.
• Species population declines are especially pronounced in the tropics, with South and Central America suffering the most dramatic decline, an 89% loss compared to 1970.
• Freshwater species numbers have also declined dramatically, with the Freshwater Index showing an 83% decline since 1970.
• Three quarter of land on earth affected by human activities.
• The Earth is estimated to have lost about half of its shallow water corals in the past 30 years.
• Only 25% of earth’s land area free from the impact of human activities.
• 300 mammals species being eaten into extinction
• Oceans massively overfished
• 89% drop in vertebrate populations in South, Central America.
• A fifth of the Amazon (20%) has disappeared in just 50 years.
• In tropical savannah Cerrado, an area the size of greater London cleared every two months.
• The area of minimally disturbed forests declined by 92 million hectares between 2000 to 2013
• Globally, nature provides services worth around $125 trillion a year, while also helping ensure the supply of fresh air, clean water, food, energy, medicines, and much more.
• Of all species that have gone extinct since 1500 AD, 75% were harmed by overexploitation or Agriculture.
• Ocean Acidification occurring at a rate not seen in at least 300 million years.
• Humans responsible for releasing 100 billion tons of carbon into Earth’s system every 10 years
• Levels of carbon dioxide reached an average of 410 ppm in April 2018, which was highest in past one million year.

World Wildlife Fund:

• WWF is one of the world’s largest and most experienced independent conservation organizations, with over 5 million supporters and a global network active in more than 100 countries.
• WWF’s mission is to stop the degradation of the planet’s natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature, by conserving the world’s biological diversity, ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable, and promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption.