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The total number of more than 4,000 species of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians quickly declined between 1970 and 2014, says the Living Planet Report 2018.
Current extinction rates for species are now up to 1,000 times higher than before human participation in animal ecosystems.
The proportion of the planet 's land free of human impact is expected to drop from one quarter to one tenth by the year 2050, as habitat removal, hunting, hunting. Pollution, disease and climate change continue to spread, the organization added.
The group called for the drafting of an international treaty, inspired by the Paris climate agreement, aimed at protecting wildlife and reversing the impacts of human activity on nature.
He warned that current efforts to protect the natural world do not follow the speed of destruction by man.
The crisis is "unprecedented in its speed, breadth and because it is solitary," said Marco Lambertini, WWF Director General. "It's amazing, we're talking about 40. It's not even a wink to the story of life on Earth."
"Now that we have the power to control and even harm nature, we continue to (use it) as if we were the hunters and gatherers of 20,000 years ago, with the technology of the 21st century, "he added. "We always take nature for granted, and it must stop."
Tanya Steele, Executive Director of WWF UK, said in a statement: "We are the first generation to know that we are destroying our planet and the last one to be able to fix it."
The report also found that 90% of seabirds had plastics in their stomachs, up from 5% in 1960, while about half of the world's shallow-water corals were lost in the last three decades .
Animal life has fallen fastest in the tropical regions of Latin America and the Caribbean, with an 89% decline in its population since 1970, while species dependent on freshwater habitats like frogs and river fish, decreased by 83%.
Destruction methods
The report describes the different ways in which human activities have resulted in losses of animal populations.
Species highlighted include African elephants, whose number in Tanzania declined by 60% in just five years between 2009 and 2014, mainly because of poaching of ivory.
Deforestation in Borneo, intended to make way for plantations of timber and palm oil, led to the loss of 100,000 orangutans between 1999 and 2015, according to the report.
And the number of polar bears is expected to decrease by 30% by 2050 as global warming causes melting ice in the Arctic, making their habitats increasingly precarious.
Wildlife is not just "nice to have," says the report, warning that human health, food and drug supplies, as well as global financial stability, are all damaged by declining wildlife and wildlife. nature.
The welfare of nearly 3 billion people who depend on wildlife for food and work has been reduced due to land degradation, and nature-dependent services are worth around $ 125 trillion worldwide, said the report.
"The collapse of wildlife populations over the last fifty years is a shocking measure of the impact of humanity on our planet," said John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK, in response to the report, joining the WWF to call for an "urgent action of the world". leaders."
"From the decline of orangutans due to deforestation for palm oil, to the adverse consequences of climate change on Arctic habitats to pollution by plastics destroying marine wildlife, we can not continue as if nothing it was, "he added.
"A global agreement"
International action is needed over the next two years to stem the tide of natural destruction, said the organization, urging governments and businesses around the world to reach an agreement similar to the 2016 Paris agreement on climate change.
"If we want a world with orangutans and puffins, clean air and enough food for all, we need urgent action on the part of our leaders and people. a new global agreement for nature and peoples that launch a global recovery program, "Steele said in a statement.
WWF urged the 196 member countries of the Convention on Biological Diversity to consider a range of objectives during their meeting in Egypt in late November.
He also encouraged the conclusion of an agreement at the 75th UN General Assembly in 2020.
The group argues for "an objective that should be equivalent to the goal of 2 degrees (to limit the overall temperature increases) of the Paris Agreement, and we still need to determine what is the goal "said Lambertini.
"There is a limit to what we can destroy, and we need to preserve a minimum of nature," added Lambertini, noting in the study that the international community has "a niche fast action ".
