WWF Releases 2022 Living Planet Report

 In October 2022, WWF, one of the largest conservation organizations in the world, released the Living Planet Report, a comprehensive study of trends in global biodiversity and the health of the planet. WWF’s flagship publication released every two years,

The Living Planet Report (LPI) is the world’s leading, science-based analysis on the health of our planet and the impact of human activity. It is published every two years by WWF, one of the largest conservation organizations in the world. WWF works in 100 countries.

The Living Planet Index acts as an early warning indicator by tracking trends in the abundance of mammals, fish, reptiles, birds and amphibians around the world. Such indicators help us to build up a picture of both the speed and scale of change in biodiversity around the world, and the impacts of this change.

The Living Planet Report 2022 is the 14th edition of the report and provides the scientific evidence to back what nature has been demonstrating repeatedly: unsustainable human activity is pushing the planet’s natural systems that support life on Earth to the edge.

Through multiple indicators including the Living Planet Index (LPI), provided by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), it shows an average 69% fall in almost 32,000 wildlife populations between 1970 and 2018.

The report calls on world leaders to come together to build a more sustainable, resilient, and healthy post-COVID-19 world for people and nature.

The key messages were:

1.The global double emergency

• We are living through climate and biodiversity crises; these are not separate from each other but are two sides of the same coin.
• Land-use change is still the most important driver of biodiversity loss.
• The cascading impacts of climate change are already affecting the natural world. Unless we limit warming to 1.5°C, climate change is likely to become the dominant cause of biodiversity loss in the coming decades.

2.The speed and scale of change

• Indicators help us to build up a picture of both the speed and scale of change in biodiversity around the world, and the impacts of this change.
• The Living Planet Index acts as an early warning indicator by tracking trends in the abundance of mammals, fish, reptiles, birds and amphibians around the world.
• The 2022 global Living Planet Index shows an average 69% decrease in monitored wildlife populations between 1970 and 2018.
• Latin America shows the greatest regional decline in average population abundance (94%).
• Population trends for monitored freshwater species are also falling steeply (83%).
• New mapping analysis techniques allow us to build up a more comprehensive picture of both the speed and scale of changes in biodiversity
• and climate, and to map where nature contributes most to our lives.

3.Building a nature-positive society

• We know that the health of our planet is declining, and we know why.
• We also know that we have the knowledge and means to address climate change and biodiversity loss.
• The landmark recognition in July 2022 by the UN General Assembly of the human right to a healthy environment cements our understanding that climate breakdown, nature loss, pollution and pandemics are human
• rights crises.
• We know that transformational change – game-changing shifts – will be essential to bring theory into practice.
• There must be system-wide changes in how we produce and consume, the technology we use, and our economic and financial systems.
• Researchers are exploring new lenses to add to these models, including climate change impacts, equity and fairness.
• Linking international trade to its impacts on nature is a key part of bending the curve of biodiversity loss at scale.
• In addressing these complex, interlinked challenges there is no one-size-fits-all solution.