Living Planet Report 2018 | Latest Burning Issues | Free PDF Download

• • 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.
  • Published by WWF every two years, the report brings together a variety of research to provide a comprehensive view of the health of the Earth
  • All economic activity ultimately depends on services provided by nature, estimated to be worth around US$125 trillion a year.
  • . Business and the finance industry are starting to question how global environmental risks will affect the macroeconomic performance of countries, sectors and financial markets, and policy-makers wonder how we will meet climate and sustainable development targets with declining nature and biodiversity.

• • Exploding human consumption is the driving force behind the unprecedented planetary change we are witnessing, through the increased demand for energy, land and water .
  • While climate change is a growing threat, the main drivers of biodiversity decline continue to be the overexploitation of species, agriculture and land conversion.
  • Indeed, a recent assessment found that only a quarter of land on Earth is substantively free of the impacts of human activities. This is projected to decline to just one- tenth by 2050. Land degradation includes forest loss; while globally this loss has slowed due to reforestation and plantations it has accelerated in tropical forests that contain some of the highest levels of biodiversity on Earth
  • Marine and freshwater ecosystems are also facing huge pressures. Almost 6 billion tonnes of fish and invertebrates have been taken from the world’s oceans since 1950.
  • Plastic pollution has been detected in all major marine environments worldwide, from shorelines and surface waters down to the deepest parts of the ocean, including the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

• Freshwater habitats, such as lakes, rivers and wetlands, are the source of life for all humans yet they are also the most threatened, strongly affected by a range of factors including habitat modification, fragmentation and destruction; invasive species; overfishing; pollution; disease; and climate change.
• The latest index shows an overall decline of 60% in population sizes between 1970 and 2014.
• 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..

 60%

• Populations of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians have, on average, declined by 60% between 1970 and 2014, the most recent year with available data.

50%

The Earth is estimated to have lost about half of its shallow water corals in the past 30 years.

20%

• A fifth of the Amazon has disappeared in just 50 years.

 $125 trillion

• 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.

THREATS AND PRESSURES

• • Overexploitation and agricultural activity, driven by our runaway consumption, are still the dominant causes of current species loss.

• Land degradation seriously impacts 75% of terrestrial ecosystems, reducing the welfare of more than 3 billion people, with huge economic costs.
• Bees, other pollinators and our soils – critical for global food security – are under increasing threat.
• Overfishing and plastic pollution are threatening our oceans, while pollution, habitat fragmentation and destruction have led to catastrophic declines in freshwater biodiversity.
• Despite multiple international policy agreements and extensive research biodiversity is still in decline.
• The CBD 2050 vision is that “biodiversity is valued, conserved, restored and wisely used, maintaining ecosystem services, sustaining a healthy planet and delivering benefits essential for all people”.
• Conservation scientists propose a 2020-2050 ‘blueprint for biodiversity’: a vision for the future through the Convention on Biological Diversity.
• Scenarios and indicators can help imagine the future and create good policies and monitor progress.

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