WHAT IS THE LIVING PLANET REPORT?

The Living Planet Report, WWF’s flagship publication released every two years, is a comprehensive study of trends in global biodiversity and the health of the planet. The Living Planet Report 2018 is the twelfth edition of the report and provides the scientific evidence to what nature has been telling us repeatedly: unsustainable human activity is pushing the planet’s natural systems that support life on Earth to the edge.

Through multiple indicators including the Living Planet Index (LPI), provided by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), the report shows us the urgent need for a new global deal for nature and people with clear, ambitious goals, targets and metrics, to reverse the devastating trend of biodiversity loss currently impacting the one planet we all call home.

DID YOU KNOW?

♦ Freshwater ecosystems, such as rivers, lakes and wetlands, deteriorate at breakneck speed, with species abundance declined by 83% since 1970.

♦ Nearly 200 million people depend on coral reefs for protection against storm surge and waves.

♦ Rainforests are shrinking: almost 20% of the Amazon has disappeared in just 50 years.

♦ In the last 50 years, global average temperature has risen at 170 times the background rate.

♦ At least 70% of new small molecule drugs introduced over the past 25 years have come from a natural source.

♦ Almost 6 billion tonnes of fish and other seafood have been taken from the world’s oceans since 1950.

♦ In the 20th century, freshwater fish have had the highest extinction rate worldwide among vertebrates.

♦ Today, 90% of the world’s seabirds are estimated to have fragments of plastic in their stomach.

♦ Globally, nature provides services worth around US$125 trillion a year. 

TAKE ACTION FOR THE PLANET

WWF is calling for a comprehensive framework agreement for nature and people under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which must galvanize action to protect and restore biodiversity.

At EU level, we need:

- an ambitious post-2020 biodversity strategy to halt and reverse nature loss;
- mainstreaming of climate and biodiversity protection into key economic sectors through EU agriculture, water, infrastructure, development, and climate and energy policies;
- a reflection of these priorities in the next EU budget;
- full implementation and enforcement of the EU Birds and Habitats Directives and the Water Framework Directive.

OUR WORK

At WWF, we envision a world in which people and nature thrive – but we’ll only get there if we all play a role and we work together.

Our mission is to stop the degradation of the planet’s natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature, by conserving the world’s biological diversity, ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable; and promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption.

At EU level, WWF advocates on the EU level for a more sustainable future for people and planet helps shape EU policies that impact on the European and global environment. The EU is responsible for approximately 80% of environmental laws in the member states and for policies such as agriculture, fisheries, regional aid, climate and energy, trade and development cooperation.