Mammals, birds, fish ... According to the WWF, wild animals on our planet have declined by 60% between 1970 and 2014. Involved, the loss of their habitat, related to intensive agriculture, mining and urbanization.
Every year, the report of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is more and more alarming. The 2018 edition is no exception to the rule: under human pressure, the Earth saw its wild vertebrate populations decline by 60% between 1970 and 2014. This 1 AXA8001 Living Planet report, published Tuesday October 30 with Zoological Society of London, is based on monitoring of 16,700 populations (4,000 species). "
"Preserving nature is not just about protecting the tigers, pandas, whales we cherish," says WWF director Marco Lambertini. "It's much bigger: there can be no healthy and prosperous future for men on a planet with a destabilized climate, exhausted oceans, degraded land and empty forests, a planet stripped of its biodiversity."
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Some regions are particularly affected, such as the tropics. The Caribbean / South America zone thus displays a "scary" record: -89% in 44 years. North America and Greenland are doing a little better, with fauna at -23%. The vast area of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East is -31%.
The Amazon rainforest shrinks more and more
Explanation first, habitat loss, with intensive agriculture, mining extraction, urbanization ... that push for deforestation, exhaustion or artificialization of soil. In Brazil, which deliriums a president whose program evokes neither deforestation nor warming, the Amazon rainforest is shrinking more and more, like the savannah of Cerrado, in favor of soy and cattle breeding.
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Added to this is overfishing, poaching, pollution, invasive species, diseases, climate change ... "The disappearance of natural capital is an ethical problem, it also has consequences for our development, our jobs, and we begin to see it", says WWF France CEO Pascal Canfin. "We are fishing less than 20 years ago because the stock is going down. The yield of some crops is starting to fall; in France, wheat has stagnated since the 2000s, "he says. "We scind the branch on which we are sitting."
Each year, the "day of the overtaking" advance, this day from which the world has consumed all the resources that the planet can renew in one year. In 2018 it was August 1st. And yet "the future of the species does not seem to hold the attention of the leaders enough," warns the WWF, for whom it is necessary "to raise the level of alert", to cause a vast movement as it was the case for the climate. "Everyone understands that the status quo is not an option."
Efforts can pay
A fight all the more gratifying that efforts can pay quickly, as shown by the return of the tiger in Nepal, Atlantic bluefin tuna or salmon from the Loire ... "We are the first generation to have a vision clear of the value of nature and our impact on it. We could also be the last to be able to reverse the trend, "warns WWF, which calls for action by 2020," a decisive moment in history, "" an unprecedented window that will close quickly ".
That year, states will be called to strengthen their commitments to reduce greenhouse gases, and also to agree to protect nature at a special conference in Beijing, with the goal of "zero net loss of biodiversity" in 2030 ", wishes the WWF.
"We must urgently move to a CO2-neutral society, reverse the loss of nature - via green finance, clean energy, another agri-food production -, restore enough soil and ocean," says Marco Lambertini. "Few people have had the chance to participate in real historical transformations. This is our chance. "
France24 and WWF