Latin America has 94% fewer animals than in 1970, says study

The Living Planet 2022 report, produced by the NGO WWF (World Wildlife Fund), showed a 69% reduction in the population of wild animals from 1970 to 2018.

The region that showed the most significant decline was Latin America, with a 94% drop.

Africa is in second place, with a 66% drop in the animal population.

The continent is followed by Asia Pacific (-55%), North America (-20%), and Europe and Central Asia (-18%).

According to the study, 1% to 2.5% of the monitored animals have gone extinct since 1970.

Currently, 1 million plants and animals are threatened with extinction.

Freshwater populations have registered the most alarming decline, with an 83% drop in the last 52 years.

Habitat loss and barriers on migration routes account for about half of the threats.

The Living Planet Index (LPI) monitors 32,000 populations of 5,230 species of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians worldwide.

Compared to the previous report, from 2020, 11,000 new populations were added, of 838 new species, 575 of which were in Brazil.

In the country alone, 3,269 populations of 1,002 species were analyzed.

The study identified threats to national symbols, such as the pink river dolphin, jaguar, and armadillo, in addition to corals and lizards.

In general, deforestation for the expansion of cropland is the biggest threat to nature, “destroying or fragmenting the natural habitats of many species of plants and animals on land, freshwater, and in the sea,” the report pointed out.

To mitigate some of the damage, the WWF team reinforced the need to limit warming to 1.5°C, as per the Paris Agreement.

The NGO predicts that climate change will become the biggest cause of biodiversity loss in the coming decades.

With information from Poder360