Why in news?

Wildlife populations monitored across the globe have declined by a massive 69% between 1970 and 2018, according to the WWF’s Living Planet Report (LPR) 2022.

What does the report say?

• Featuring almost 32,000 populations of 5,230 species, the Living Planet Index (LPI) provided in the report shows it is within tropical regions that monitored vertebrate wildlife populations are plummeting at a staggering rate.
• “Latin America and the Caribbean regions have seen the largest decline of monitored wildlife populations globally– an average decline of 94% during the period
• Wildlife populations have dipped by 66% in Africa and 55% in the Asia Pacific. Freshwater populations have declined by 83% on average compared to other species groups
• The IUCN Red List shows cycads are the most threatened species, while corals are declining the fastest, followed by amphibians.
• Habitat loss and barriers to migration routes are responsible for about half of the threats to monitored migratory fish species
• The main drivers of wildlife population decline are habitat degradation and loss, exploitation, introduction of invasive species, pollution, climate change and disease.