LIVING PLANET REPORT 2022

1.Context

There has been a 69 percent decline in the wildlife populations of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and fish, across the globe in the last 50 years, according to the latest Living Planet Report by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

2.Report findings

• The highest decline of 94 percent was in Latin America and the Caribbean region
• Africa recorded a 66 percent fall in its wildlife populations from 1970-2018 and in the Asia Pacific 55 percent  
• Freshwater species populations globally were reduced by 83 percent, confirming that the planet is experiencing a "biodiversity and climate crisis 
• The Living Planet Index (LPI), featuring about 32,000 populations of 5,230 species across the world, showed that vertebrate wildlife populations are plummeting at a particularly staggering rate in tropical regions of the world.

WWF identified six key threats to biodiversity —

1. Agriculture
2.  Hunting
3.  Logging
4.  Pollution
5. Invasive species and
6.  Climate change - to highlight ‘threat hotspots' for terrestrial vertebrates.

• Biodiversity loss and climate crisis are intertwined issues
•  Habitat loss and barriers to migration routes were responsible for about half of the threats to monitored migratory fish species

3.Mangroves

• Mangroves continue to be lost to aquaculture, agriculture, and coastal development at a rate of 0.13 percent per year
•  Many mangroves are also degraded by overexploitation and pollution, alongside natural stressors such as storms and coastal erosion,
• Mangrove loss represents the loss of habitat for biodiversity and the loss of ecosystem services for coastal communities
• Around 137 square kilometers 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.

4.Conclusion

"Climate change in India will impact key areas, such as water resources, agriculture, natural ecosystems, health and the food chain.

Sources:Downtoearth