Date: 15/10/2022

Relevance: GS-3: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment.

Key Phrases: Living Planet Report 2022, Global biodiversity, World Wide Fund, Wildlife populations, Freshwater species, Biodiversity, Mangroves-loss, Corals, Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, Invasive non-native species, UN Biodiversity Conference.

Why in News?

• In just over 50 years, there has been a 69% drop in the wildlife population globally, the Living Planet Report 2022 has flagged, with Latin America and the Caribbean being the worst hit (94% loss since 1970).

Living Planet Report 2022:

• The Living Planet Report is a comprehensive study of trends in global biodiversity and the health of the planet.
• The Living Planet Report is published every 2 years by the World Wide Fund for Nature since 1998. It is based on the Living Planet Index and ecological footprint calculations.
• 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 the Earth to the edge.

Key highlights of the Report:

• There has been a 69 per cent decline in the wildlife populations of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish, across the globe in the last 50 years.
• Latin America shows the greatest regional decline in average population abundance (94%).
• Africa recorded a 66 per cent fall in its wildlife populations from 1970-2018 and the Asia Pacific 55 per cent.
• WWF identified six key threats to biodiversity — agriculture, hunting, logging, pollution, invasive species and climate change — to highlight ‘threat hotspots' for terrestrial vertebrates.
• The Living Planet Report has found that
  • Agriculture is the most prevalent threat to amphibians (animals that live both on land and in water),
  • Hunting and trapping are most likely to threaten birds and mammals.
  • Geographically, Southeast Asia is the region where species are most likely to face threats at a significant level,
  • While the Polar regions and the east coast of Australia and South Africa showed the highest impact probabilities for climate change, driven in particular by impact on birds.
• Decreasing freshwater species
  • Freshwater species populations globally reduced by 83 per cent, confirming that the planet is experiencing a “biodiversity and climate crisis”, the organisation found.
  • Habitat loss and barriers to migration routes were responsible for about half of the threats to monitored migratory fish species.
• Disappearing oceanic sharks and rays
  • The global abundance of 18 of 31 oceanic sharks has declined by 71% over the last 50 years.
  • This collapse in their abundance reflects an increase in extinction risk for most species.
  • By 1980, nine of the 31 oceanic sharks were threatened. By 2020, three-quarters (77%, 24 species) were threatened with an elevated risk of extinction. For example, the oceanic Whitetip Shark has declined by 95%globally over three generation lengths, and has consequently moved from Vulnerable to Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List.
• Mangroves-loss
  • Mangroves continue to be lost to aquaculture, agriculture and coastal development at a rate of 0.13 percent per year.
  • Around 137 square kilometres of the Sundarbans mangrove forest in India and Bangladesh has been eroded since 1985, reducing land and ecosystem services for many of the 10 million people who live there.
• Corals
  • About 50% of warm water corals have already been lost and a warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius will lead to a loss of 70-90% of warm water corals.

Why are we losing biodiversity?

Biodiversity is essential for our health, well-being and economic success. It is essential to understand why nature is in decline in order to alter this path. Five key drivers of biodiversity loss have been identified by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). They are:

• Changing use of sea and land
  • The biggest driver of biodiversity loss is the way in which people use the land and sea. How we grow food, harvest materials such as wood or minerals from the ocean floor, and build our towns and cities all have an impact on the natural environment and the biodiversity that lives there.
• Direct exploitation of organisms
  • The overexploitation of plants and animals, for example through hunting or poaching, is another reason we are losing biodiversity. Overfishing is happening at such a large scale, nearly a third of all monitored global fish stocks are now overfished. If we continue, this would spell disaster for marine ecosystems as well as the more than three billion people globally who rely on fish for their primary source of protein.
• Climate change
  • Climate change is having a dramatic impact on our natural environment. Some species are dying out while others are having to move where they live due to changes in air temperature, weather patterns, and sea levels. As well as being a direct driver of biodiversity loss, climate change also worsens the other drivers.
• Pollution
  • Pollution has reached all types of ecosystems, even those in remote areas. Pollution comes in many forms - from nitrogen and ammonia, caused by intense agriculture, to micro plastics found in the deepest parts of the ocean. Pollution hotspots are most prominent in Europe where they pose a threat to terrestrial amphibians, mammals and birds.
• Invasive non-native species
  • Invasive non-native species are those that arrive in places where they historically didn’t live, and out-compete local biodiversity for resources such as sunlight and water. This causes the native species to die out, causing a shift in the make-up of the natural ecosystem.

Way Forward:

• Research shows the world could start to stabilize and reverse the loss of nature by embracing bolder, more ambitious conservation efforts as well as making transformational changes in the way food is produced and consumed, such as making food production and trade more efficient, reducing waste, and favouring healthier and more sustainable diets.
• World leaders have a vitally important opportunity to reverse nature loss and secure a nature-positive world that will benefit people and the planet. In December 2022 at the UN biodiversity conference (COP 15), key decision-makers will determine global efforts for biodiversity for the coming decade. WWF is urging countries to step up ambition and deliver a comprehensive and science-based plan for nature that is ready to be put into practice immediately.

Source: Down To Earth

Mains Question:

Q. What are the key highlights of the Living Planet Report 2022? What are reasons behind the Earth losing its biodiversity?