Species
across land, rivers and seas decimated as humans kill for food in unsustainable
numbers and destroy habitats
The Guardian, Damian Carrington, Monday 29 September 2014
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| Rubbish dumped on the tundra outside llulissat in Greenland stand in stark contrast to icebergs behind from the Sermeq Kujullaq or llulissat Ice fjord – a Unesco world heritage site. Photograph: Global Warming Images/WWF-Canon |
The number
of wild animals on Earth has halved in the past 40 years, according to a new
analysis. Creatures across land, rivers and the seas are being decimated as
humans kill them for food in unsustainable numbers, while polluting or destroying
their habitats, the research by scientists at WWF and the Zoological Society of
London found.
“If half
the animals died in London zoo next week it would be front page news,” said
Professor Ken Norris, ZSL’s director of science. “But that is happening in the
great outdoors. This damage is not inevitable but a consequence of the way we
choose to live.” He said nature, which provides food and clean water and air,
was essential for human wellbeing.
“We have
lost one half of the animal population and knowing this is driven by human
consumption, this is clearly a call to arms and we must act now,” said Mike
Barratt, director of science and policy at WWF. He said more of the Earth must
be protected from development and deforestation, while food and energy had to
be produced sustainably.
The steep
decline of animal, fish and bird numbers was calculated by analysing 10,000
different populations, covering 3,000 species in total. This data was then, for
the first time, used to create a representative “Living Planet Index” (LPI),
reflecting the state of all 45,000 known vertebrates.
“We have
all heard of the FTSE 100 index, but we have missed the ultimate indicator, the
falling trend of species and ecosystems in the world,” said Professor Jonathan
Baillie, ZSL’s director of conservation. “If we get [our response] right, we
will have a safe and sustainable way of life for the future,” he said.
If not, he
added, the overuse of resources would ultimately lead to conflicts. He said the
LPI was an extremely robust indicator and had been adopted by UN’s
internationally-agreed Convention on Biological Diversity as key insight into
biodiversity.
A second
index in the new Living Planet report calculates humanity’s “ecological
footprint”, ie the scale at which it is using up natural resources. Currently,
the global population is cutting down trees faster than they regrow, catching
fish faster than the oceans can restock, pumping water from rivers and aquifers
faster than rainfall can replenish them and emitting more climate-warming
carbon dioxide than oceans and forests can absorb.
The report
concludes that today’s average global rate of consumption would need 1.5 planet
Earths to sustain it. But four planets would be required to sustain US levels
of consumption, or 2.5 Earths to match UK consumption levels.
The fastest
decline among the animal populations were found in freshwater ecosystems, where
numbers have plummeted by 75% since 1970. “Rivers are the bottom of the
system,” said Dave Tickner, WWF’s chief freshwater adviser. “Whatever happens
on the land, it all ends up in the rivers.” For example, he said, tens of
billions of tonnes of effluent are dumped in the Ganges in India every year.
As well as
pollution, dams and the increasing abstraction of water damage freshwater
systems. There are more than 45,000 major dams – 15m or higher – around the
world. “These slice rivers up into a thousand pieces,” Tickner said, preventing
the healthy flow of water. While population has risen fourfold in the last
century, water use has gone up sevenfold. “We are living thirstier and
thirstier lives,” he said.
But while
freshwater species such as the European eel and the hellbender salamander in
the US have crashed, recoveries have also been seen. Otters were near extinct
in England but thanks to conservation efforts now live in every county.
The number
of animals living on the land has fallen by 40% since 1970. From forest elephants in central Africa, where poaching rates now exceed birth rates, to
the Hoolock gibbon in Bangladesh and European snakes like the meadow and asp
vipers, destruction of habitat has seen populations tumble. But again intensive
conservation effort can turn declines around, as has happened with tigers in Nepal.
Marine
animal populations have also fallen by 40% overall, with turtles suffering in
particular. Hunting, the destruction of nesting grounds and getting drowned in
fishing nets have seen turtle numbers fall by 80%. Some birds have been heavily
affected too. The number of grey partridges in the UK sank by 50% since 1970
due to the intensification of farming, while curlew sandpipers in Australia
lost 80% of their number in the 20 years to 2005.
The biggest
declines in animal numbers have been seen in low-income, developing nations,
while conservation efforts in rich nations have seen small improvements
overall. But the big declines in wildlife in rich nations had already occurred
long before the new report’s baseline year of 1970 – the last wolf in the UK
was shot in 1680.
Also, by
importing food and other goods produced via habitat destruction in developing
nations, rich nations are “outsourcing” wildlife decline to those countries,
said Norris. For example, a third of all the products of deforestation such as
timber, beef and soya were exported to the EU between 1990 and 2008.
David
Nussbaum, chief executive of WWF-UK said: “The scale of the destruction
highlighted in this report should be a wake-up call for us all. But 2015 – when
the countries of the world are due to come together to agree on a new global climate agreement, as well as a set of sustainable development goals – presents
us with a unique opportunity to reverse the trends.
“We all –
politicians, businesses and people – have an interest, and a responsibility, to
act to ensure we protect what we all value: a healthy future for both people
and nature.”
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