Living planet 2018 report  reported that humanity has wiped out 60% of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles since 1970, leading the world’s foremost experts to warn that the annihilation of wildlife is now an emergency that threatens civilisation.

Findings of the report:-

• The vast and growing consumption of food and resources by the global population is destroying the web of life, billions of years in the making, upon which human society ultimately depends for clean air, water and everything else.
• Freshwater habitats:- Freshwater habitats are the worst hit, with populations having collapsed by 83%. As a result of the collapse, Indian crocodiles are on the verge of extinction.
• Three-quarters of all land on Earth is now significantly affected by human activities. Killing for food is the next biggest cause – 300 mammal species are being eaten into extinction – while the oceans are massively overfished, with more than half now being industrially fished.
• Species disappearing
  1. The index of extinction risk for five major groups birds, mammals, amphibians, corals and an ancient family of plants called cycads  shows an accelerating slide towards oblivion.
  2. From 1970 to 2014, 60% of all animals with a backbone like fish, birds, amphibians, reptiles and mammals were wiped out by human appetites and activity, according to WWF’s “Living Planet” report, based on a survey of more than 4,000 species spread over 16,700 populations scattered across the
• Boundaries breached:-
  1. Humans have clearly breached two of the so-called planetary boundaries: species loss, and imbalances in Earth’s natural cycles of nitrogen and phosphorous (mainly due to fertiliser use).
  2. Ocean acidification and freshwater supply are not far behind.
  3. More generally, the marginal capacity of Earth’s ecosystems to renew themselves has been far outstripped by humanity’s ecological footprint, which has nearly tripled in 50 years.
• Forests shrinking :-Nearly 20% of the Amazon rainforest, the world’s largest, has disappeared in five decades. Tropical deforestation continues unabated, mainly to make way for soy beans, palm oil and cattle.
• Oceans depleted
  1. Since 1950, Humans have extracted 6 billion tonnes of fish, crustaceans, clams, squids and other edible sea creatures.
  2. Climate change and pollution have killed off half of the world’s shallow water coral reefs, which support more than a quarter of marine life.
  3. Coastal mangrove forests, which protect against storm surges made worse by rising seas, have also declined by up to half over the last 50 years.

Measures needed:-

• More ambition is needed to not simply halt loss but to reverse the trend of biodiversity 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”. This needs to be kept in mind while achieving environmental targets by nations.
• 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, monitor progress and identify potential win-win solutions for both nature and for people.