A 73% average decline since 1970

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said in its latest Living Planet Report, published Thursday, that monitored wild vertebrate populations fell by an average of 73% between 1970 and 2022. The Living Planet Index, compiled by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), tracks 35,803 population trends covering 5,790 vertebrate species. The index measures the relative change in each population rather than counting the animals lost, so a colony that falls from 200 to 100 birds counts as the same decline as one that drops from 20,000 to 10,000. About half of the monitored populations are stable or growing, but the losses among the rest are large enough to pull the average down. The report is published every two years, and the 2026 figure is equivalent to the one in the 2024 report, which covered 1970 to 2020.

Ecosystems and regions

Freshwater ecosystems declined most, by 85%, followed by terrestrial ecosystems at 69% and marine ecosystems at 59%, according to ANSA and 20 minutos. Dams block fish migration routes, while pollution and overexploitation add to the pressure, according to NZZ.

Habitat loss and degradation is the threat most frequently reported for the monitored populations, followed by overexploitation, climate change, pollution, invasive species and disease, according to ANSA. WWF links these pressures to the food, energy and financial systems, and Der Standard reports that the organisation names the way food is produced as the largest driver.

Latin America and the Caribbean recorded the steepest regional fall, 95%, according to RFI. Africa recorded an average decline of 80%, the second-largest regional drop, while the Asia-Pacific region recorded 49%.

Yann Laurans, director of conservation programmes at WWF France, told RFI that the African figure partly reflects how much biodiversity remained when systematic monitoring began in the 1970s.

The first message is that the decline is continuing.

Laurans added that much of Europe had already lost considerable biodiversity before the monitoring period began, and he said that the decline in Africa began later.

Recoveries and what drove them

NZZ reports that the tiger population stood at about 3,200 in the wild in 2010 and at about 5,700 in 2025. The article credits the expansion of protected areas, trained rangers and the pursuit of poachers.

Stricter catch quotas helped bluefin tuna, which are no longer considered overfished. In 2025 the green sea turtle was downgraded to not threatened, the first sea turtle to receive that change, according to NZZ. ANSA also lists the recovery of the African savanna elephant among the successes.

In Brazil, the golden lion tamarin, which was reduced to about 200 individuals in 1970, now numbers around 4,800 in the Atlantic Forest, according to Deutsche Welle. Luis Paulo Ferraz, executive secretary of the Golden Lion Tamarin Association, credited changes in legislation, the creation of protected areas, a sharp reduction in deforestation and social engagement.

Pressure points and the road ahead

WWF singled out the Congo Basin, the world's second-largest tropical rainforest, as an area under particularly intense pressure. The region is home to forest elephants and great apes, and it faces agricultural expansion, logging, mining and road construction, while unsustainable hunting and poaching add to the strain, according to RFI.

Tanya Steele, chief executive of WWF UK, told The Guardian that the loss of biodiversity is already costly for people.

Biodiversity loss is not only dramatic for wild species. We are already paying the price with growing risks to our food security, our water reserves, the economy and our resilience to climate shocks.

Kirsten Schuijt, director general of WWF, told Deutsche Welle that the report is meant to encourage action by pointing to species that have recovered.

The negative data is real. But there are reasons, scientific evidence, to have hope that change is possible.

Governments are expected to assess progress toward international commitments to halt and reverse nature loss at the Cop17 United Nations biodiversity conference in Armenia, which runs from 19 to 30 October.