In ten days, representatives from around the world will meet in Cali, Colombia, to explain how they intend to implement their commitment to halt the erosion of biodiversity by 2030, made two years ago in Canada. On the eve of the inauguration of this 16my world conference on biodiversity (COP16), the new edition of the “Living Planet” report, published on Thursday, October 10 by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), aims to be a call to mobilization: it shows that despite the promises , The health of species and ecosystems continues to deteriorate.
This annual update of the “living planet index” (IPV) evaluates the abundance of wild vertebrate populations. It indicates that between 1970 and 2020 the size of monitored populations of birds, mammals, amphibians, fish and reptiles decreased, on average, by 73% worldwide. The previous edition, from 2022, reported a drop of 69%. Vertebrates represent less than 5% of known animal species, but they are the most studied.
“This emblematic WWF report reveals the extent of the decline in biodiversity and confirms the trend of previous editions. underlines Véronique Andrieux, general director of the French branch of the NGO. Behind each species, environments and ecosystems are affected. »
“Local successes”
Calculated by the Zoological Society of London, the GPI takes into account a set of data that increases from edition to edition: this year information relating to some 35,000 populations of 5,495 species of animals has been considered. This indicator, often misinterpreted, does not say that almost three quarters of wild vertebrate species have disappeared in half a century, nor that all populations studied are declining (many are progressing or stable): it indicates that the average size of populations decreased considerably. .
“A population is a group of animals observed at a given time in a given place, explains Yann Laurans, program director of WWF France. The GPI is open to criticism insofar as it provides a global average, but no study credibly says there would be an increase in abundance. We are seeing real successes locally, with species returning, but they remain islands of preservation within a deteriorating whole. »
The population of pink dolphins in the Amazon (Brazil), for example, has decreased by 65% in twenty-two years, being captured in fishing nets or hunted to serve as bait, while the population of mountain gorillas in the Virunga massif (Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and Rwanda) increased by 3% annually between 2010 and 2016, thanks to conservation efforts. Antarctic chinstrap penguin colony populations declined by 61% between 1980 and 2019, due to a shortage of krill (zooplankton) and climate change, while the European bison, extinct in the wild in the early 20th centurymy century, they returned to the continent.
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