Living Planet Report 2022

• Living Planet Report 2022 is published by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

About Living Planet Report

• The Living Planet Report is the organization's main journal.
• Every two years, it is made available.
• It is an extensive analysis of changes in both global biodiversity and environmental health. It monitors shifts in the relative richness of populations of wild species all around the world.
• Since the 2020 LPR was published, 11,011 new populations and 838 new species have been added to the LPI dataset.
• The number of fish species that have been added to the Living Planet Report has significantly increased (481).

Principal findings of the report:

Population Reduction

• Over the past 50 years, the number of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and fish has decreased by 69 percent on a global scale.
• Between 1970 and 2018, there was an average 83% reduction in freshwater population size.
• According to the IUCN Red List, amphibians are the species that are most in decline, followed by corals and cycads, an ancient genus of seed plants.

Region-specific evaluation

• The region of Latin America and the Caribbean experienced the greatest loss (94 percent).
• Africa saw a 66% decline in wildlife numbers between 1970 and 2018.
• The monitored populations in Asia and the Pacific declined by 55%.
• The location where species are most likely to experience serious challenges is Southeast Asia.
• The largest effect probability for climate change were found in the polar regions, along with on Australia's and South Africa's east coasts, and were particularly driven by impacts on birds.

Mangroves

• At a rate of 0.13 percent year, mangroves are still being lost to aquaculture, agriculture, and coastal development.
• Loss of mangroves equates to loss of ecosystem services for coastal residents as well as habitat for wildlife.
• Since 1985, the Sundarbans mangrove forest in India and Bangladesh has lost around 137 square kilometres to erosion, diminishing the ecological services it provides to many of the 10 million people who live there.
• Corals A rising of 1.5 degrees Celsius will result in a loss of 70–90% of warm water corals. Approximately 50% of warm water corals have already been gone.
• Following sea level rise, the little Australian rodent known as the Bramble Cay melomys was declared extinct.

Sharks

• In the last 50 years, the global abundance of 18 of the 31 oceanic sharks has decreased by 71%, and the report stated that by 2020, three-quarters of sharks and rays would be gone.

Others

• Only 37% of rivers longer than 1,000 km continue to flow freely along the whole length of the river.
• The greatest threat to the environment at the moment is 41% land-use change.
• According to the report, effort is required to stop global warming at 1.5°C and stop biodiversity loss by 2030.
• We can cut down on agricultural land use by 41% and wildlife loss by up to 46% by switching to sustainable, healthy, and culturally appropriate diets.

???????

The particular study regarding India:

• Some of the most vulnerable areas in the nation in terms of biodiversity loss include the Western Ghats and the Himalayan region, where biodiversity loss is predicted to accelerate in the future if temperatures rise.
• During this time, India has observed population declines in 17 species of freshwater turtles as well as honeybees.???????

Issues mentioned in the report:

• About half of the dangers to the fish species whose migration was being watched were caused by habitat loss and obstructions to their pathways.
• In order to identify "threat hotspots" for terrestrial vertebrates, WWF selected six major threats to biodiversity: agriculture, hunting, logging, pollution, invasive species, and climate change.
• The destruction or fragmentation of many plant and animal species' natural habitats on land, in freshwater, and in the sea is still the biggest danger to nature today.
• Due to human-caused climate change and biodiversity loss, the well-being of both present and future generations is under jeopardy.
• In addition to natural stressors like storms and coastal erosion, mangroves are also negatively impacted by overuse and pollution.
• Important areas such as water resources, agriculture, natural ecosystems, health, and the food chain will be impacted by climate change in India.
• Animals that dwell both on land and in water are more frequently threatened by agriculture, whereas birds and mammals are more frequently threatened by hunting and trapping.

Way Forward

Interlink-age

• According to the worldwide organisation for animal conservation, biodiversity loss and the climate crisis should be treated as one problem rather than two separate ones because of their interconnection.

A future that benefits nature

• It requires radical, paradigm-shifting changes in how we produce, consume, govern, and finance.

Read Also: Biodiversity And Environment