LIVING PLANETREPORT 2020
BENDING THE CURVE OF BIODIVERSITY LOSS

1

WWF
WWF is one of the world’s largest and most experienced independent
conservation organizations, with over 5 million supporters and a global
network active in more than 100 countries. WWF’s mission is to stop
the degradation of the planet’s natural environment and to build afuture in which humans live in harmony with nature, by conserving theworld’s biological diversity, ensuring that the use of renewable natural
resources is sustainable, and promoting the reduction of pollution andwasteful consumption.

Institute of Zoology (Zoological Society of London)
Founded in 1826, ZSL (Zoological Society of London) is an international
conservation charity working to create a world where wildlife
thrives. ZSL’s work is realised through ground-breaking science, field
conservation around the world and engaging millions of people
through two zoos, ZSL London Zoo and ZSL Whipsnade Zoo.
ZSL manages the Living Planet Index® in a collaborative partnershipwith WWF.

CitationWWF (2020) Living Planet Report 2020 Bending the curve of biodiversity loss.
Almond, R.E.A., Grooten M. and Petersen, T. (Eds).
WWF, Gland, Switzerland.

Design and infographics by: peer&dedigitalesupermarkt
Cover photograph: © Jonathan Caramanus / Green Renaissance / WWF-UK
Farmer Nancy Rono with a chameleon on her sleeve, Bomet County,
Mara River Upper Catchment, Kenya.

ISBN 978-2-940529-99-5
Living Planet Report®
and Living Planet Index®
are registered trademarksof WWF International.

CONTENTS
FOREWORD BY MARCO LAMBERTINI

4EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

6AT A GLANCE

9CHAPTER 1: AN SOS FOR NATURE

10CHAPTER 2: OUR WORLD IN 2020

50

CHAPTER 3: PEOPLE AND NATURE ARE INTERTWINED74

CHAPTER 4: IMAGINING A ROADMAP FOR PEOPLE AND NATURE

112

REFERENCES

140

Editorial Team
Editor-in-Chief: Rosamunde Almond (WWF-NL)
Co-Editor-in-Chief: Monique Grooten (WWF-NL)
Lead Editor: Tanya Petersen
Living Planet Report Fellow: Sophie Ledger (Zoological Society of London - ZSL)
Steering Group
Chair: Rebecca Shaw (WWF-International)
Mike Barrett (WWF-UK), João Campari (WWF-Brazil), Winnie De’Ath (WWF-International), Katie Gough(WWF-International), Marieke Harteveld (WWF-International), Margaret Kuhlow (WWF-International),
Lin Li (WWF-NL), Luis Naranjo (WWF-Colombia) and Kavita Prakash-Marni
Authors
Inger Andersen (United Nations Environment Programme), Mark Anderson (Dasgupta Review Team),Alexandre Antonelli (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew), Chris Baker (Wetlands International), William
Baldwin-Cantello (WWF-International), Patricia Balvanera (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
- UNAM), BCE/eBMS-ABLE Consortium, Emily Beech (Botanic Gardens Conservation International BGCI), Julie Bélanger (UN Food and Agriculture Organization - FAO), Julia Blanchard (University of
Tasmania), Monika Böhm (Zoological Society of London - ZSL), Stuart Butchart (BirdLife International),
Duncan Cameron (University of Sheffield), William W. L. Cheung (Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries,
The University of British Columbia), Colin Clubbe (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew), Sarah Cornell(Stockholm Resilience Centre), Richard Cottrell (University of California Santa Barbara), Partha Dasgupta(University of Cambridge), Fabrice DeClerck (EAT), Stefanie Deinet (Zoological Society of London ZSL), Moreno di Marco (Sapienza University of Rome), Sandra Díaz (CONICET and Córdoba National
University, Argentina and IPBES Global Assessment Co-Chair), Lynn Dicks (University of Cambridge),
Sarah Doornbos (WWF-NL), Franz Essl (University of Vienna), Adrienne Etard (University College London- UCL), FABLE Consortium (UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network), Wendy Foden (South
African National Parks - SANParks), Robin Freeman (Zoological Society of London - ZSL), Alessandro Galli(Global Footprint Network), Jaboury Ghazoul (ETH Zurich), Eliza Grames (University of Connecticut),Elizabeth Green (UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring - UNEP-WCMC),
Guenther Grill (McGill University), Luigi Guarino (Crop Trust ), Neal Haddaway (Stockholm Environment
Institute, Stockholm), Laurel Hanscom (Global Footprint Network), Mike Harfoot (UN Environment
Programme World Conservation Monitoring - UNEP-WCMC), Serene Hargreaves (Royal Botanic Gardens,
Kew), Jelle Hilbers (Radboud University Nijmegen), Samantha Hill (UN Environment Programme World
Conservation Monitoring - UNEP-WCMC), Craig Hilton-Taylor (IUCN), Richard Holland (Wetlands
International), Aelys Humphreys (Stockholm University), Walter Jetz (Yale University), Arwyn Jones(European Commission Joint Research Centre - JRC), Sarah Jones (Bioversity International), Akanksha
Khatri (World Economic Forum - WEF), HyeJin Kim (German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research- iDiv), Monica Kobayashi (UN Food and Agriculture Organization - FAO), Guillaume Latombe (Universityof Vienna), David Leclère (IIASA), Bernhard Lehner (McGill University), Bernd Lenzner (University of
Vienna), David Lin (Global Footprint Network), Brian Lueng (McGill University), Eimear Nic Lughadha(Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew), Carolyn Lundquist (University of Auckland), Jane Madgwick (Wetlands
International), Valentina Marconi (Zoological Society of London - ZSL), Marcio Martins (University ofSão Paulo), Berta Martín-López (Leuphana University, Lüneburg), Emily McKenzie (Dasgupta Review
Team), Louise McRae (Zoological Society of London - ZSL), Leticia Merino Perez (Universidad Nacional
Autónoma de México - UNAM), Guy Midgley (Stellenbosch University), Haroon Mohamoud (Dasgupta
Review Team), Zsolt Molnar (Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Graham Montgomery (University ofConnecticut), Aline Mosnier (UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network), Tim Newbold (University
College London - UCL), Michael Obersteiner (The Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford
and IIASA) Natasja Oerlemans (WWF-NL), Jeff Opperman (WWF-International), Alberto Orgiazzi(European Commission Joint Research Centre - JRC), Stuart Orr (WWF-International), Ant Parham(Dasgupta Review Team), Pete Pearson (WWF-US), Henrique Pereira (Martin Luther University),
Alexander Pfaff (Duke University), Thomas Pienkowski (Oxford University), Dafydd Pilling (UN Food andAgriculture Organization - FAO), Jamie Pittock (Australian National University), Jack Plummer (Royal
Botanic Gardens, Kew), Jordan Poncet (UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network), Andy Purvis(Natural History Museum, London), Malin Rivers (Botanic Gardens Conservation International - BGCI),
Isabel Rosa (Bangor University), Kate Scott-Gatty (Zoological Society of London - ZSL), Hanno Seebens(Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre), Will Simonson (UN Environment Programme
World Conservation Monitoring - UNEP-WCMC), Bruce Stein (National Wildlife Federation), Amanda
Stone (WWF-US), Michele Thieme (WWF-US), Dave Tickner (WWF-UK), Derek Tittensor (Dalhousie
University), Ginya Truitt Nakata (International Potato Centre), Edgar Turner (University of Cambridge),
Paula Valdujo (WWF-Brazil), Riyan van den Born (Radboud University Nijmegen), Chris van Swaay(Butterfly Conservation Europe), Nicola van Wilgen (South African National Parks - SANParks), Ronald
Vargas (UN Food and Agriculture Organization - FAO), Oscar Venter (University of British Columbia),
Piero Visconti (International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis), Mathis Wackernagel (Global
Footprint Network), Catharine Ward Thompson (University of Edinburgh), James Watson (Wildlife
Conservation Society), Robert Watson (Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research), Dominic Waughray(World Economic Forum - WEF), Sarah Whitmee (Oxford University), Brooke Williams (University of
Queensland) and Jessica Williams (University College London - UCL)
Special thanks
Rob Alkemade (PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency), Jennifer Anna (WWF-US), Paige
Ashton (WWF-UK), Yves Basset (Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama), Shang Hui Chia
(WWF-International), Wendy Elliott (WWF-International), Christo Fabricius (WWF-US), Elaine GeyerAllely (WWF-International), Huma Khan (WWF-International), Hermine Kleymann (WWF-International),
Marcel Kok (PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency), Greg P.A Lamarre (Czech Academy of
Sciences), Richard Lee (WWF-International), Philip Leonard (WWF-International), Ghislaine Llewellyn(WWF-Australia), Brent Loken (WWF-International), Gretchen Lyons (WWF-International), Peter
McFeely (WWF-International), Holly McKinlay (WWF-US), Isabelle Oostendorp (WWF-NL), Pablo
Pacheco (WWF-International), Hannah Rotten (Zoological Society of London - ZSL), Aafke Schipper (PBL
Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency), Kirsten Schuijt (WWF-NL), Krista Singleton-Cambage(WWF-International), James Stapleton (International Potato Centre), John Tanzer (WWF-International),
Detlef van Vuuren (PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency), Carrie Watson (WWF-UK),
Chris Weber (WWF-International), Mark Wright (WWF-UK), Lucy Young (WWF-UK) and Natascha
Zwaal (WWF-NL)LIVING PLANETREPORT 2020
BENDING THE CURVE OF BIODIVERSITY LOSS

8 BILLION REASONS TO
SAFEGUARD NATURE
At a time when the world is reeling from the deepest global
disruption and health crisis of a lifetime, this year’s Living Planet
Report provides unequivocal and alarming evidence that natureis unravelling and that our planet is flashing red warning signs ofvital natural systems failure. The Living Planet Report 2020 clearly
outlines how humanity’s increasing destruction of nature is having
catastrophic impacts not only on wildlife populations but also on
human health and all aspects of our lives.
This highlights that a deep cultural and systemic shift is urgently
needed, one that so far our civilisation has failed to embrace: atransition to a society and economic system that values nature,stops taking it for granted and recognises that we depend on nature
more than nature depends on us.

© WWFThis is about rebalancing our relationship with the planet topreserve the Earth’s amazing diversity of life and enable a just,healthy and prosperous society – and ultimately to ensure ourown survival.
Nature is declining globally at rates unprecedented in millionsof years. The way we produce and consume food and energy,
and the blatant disregard for the environment entrenched in ourcurrent economic model, has pushed the natural world to its limits.
COVID-19 is a clear manifestation of our broken relationship withnature. It has highlighted the deep interconnection between nature,human health and well-being, and how unprecedented biodiversity
loss threatens the health of both people and the planet.
It is time we answer nature’s SOS. Not just to secure the future oftigers, rhinos, whales, bees, trees and all the amazing diversity oflife we love and have the moral duty to coexist with, but because
ignoring it also puts the health, well-being and prosperity, indeed
the future, of nearly 8 billion people at stake.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 4

The Living Planet Report 2020 shows that there is an opportunity
to heal our relationship with nature and mitigate risks of future
pandemics but this better future starts with the decisions thatgovernments, companies and people around the world take today.
World leaders must take urgent action to protect and restore natureas the foundation for a healthy society and a thriving economy.
We still have a chance to put things right. It’s time for the world toagree a New Deal for Nature and People, committing to stop andreverse the loss of nature by the end of this decade and build
a carbon-neutral and nature-positive economy and society.
This is our best safeguard for human health and livelihoods inthe long term, and to ensure a safe future for our children andchildren’s children.

Marco Lambertini,

Director General
WWF International

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The global Living Planet Index continues to decline. It shows anaverage 68% decrease in population sizes of mammals, birds,
amphibians, reptiles and fish between 1970 and 2016. A 94%
decline in the LPI for the tropical subregions of the Americas is thelargest fall observed in any part of the world.
Why does this matter?
It matters because biodiversity is fundamental to human life on
Earth, and the evidence is unequivocal – it is being destroyed by us
at a rate unprecedented in history. Since the industrial revolution,
human activities have increasingly destroyed and degraded forests,
grasslands, wetlands and other important ecosystems, threatening
human well-being. Seventy-five per cent of the Earth’s ice-free land
surface has already been significantly altered, most of the oceans
are polluted, and more than 85% of the area of wetlands has
been lost.
Species population trends are important because they are ameasure of overall ecosystem health. Measuring biodiversity,
the variety of all living things, is complex, and there is no single
measure that can capture all of the changes in this web of life.
Nevertheless, the vast majority of indicators show net declines overrecent decades.
That’s because in the last 50 years our world has been transformedby an explosion in global trade, consumption and humanpopulation growth, as well as an enormous move towards
urbanisation. Until 1970, humanity’s Ecological Footprint was
smaller than the Earth’s rate of regeneration. To feed and fuel our
21st century lifestyles, we are overusing the Earth’s biocapacity by atleast 56%.
These underlying trends are driving the unrelenting destructionof nature, with only a handful of countries retaining most of thelast remaining wilderness areas. Our natural world is transforming
more rapidly than ever before, and climate change is further
accelerating the change.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 6

Tigers, pandas and polar bears are well-known species in thestory of biodiversity decline, but what of the millions of tiny, oras-yet-undiscovered, species that are also under threat? What ishappening to the life in our soils, or in plant and insect diversity?
All of these provide fundamental support for life on Earth and areshowing signs of stress.
Biodiversity loss threatens food security and urgent action isneeded to address the loss of the biodiversity that feeds theworld. Where and how we produce food is one of the biggest
human-caused threats to nature and our ecosystems, making thetransformation of our global food system more important than ever.
The transformation of our economic systems is also critical.
Our economies are embedded within nature, and it is only byrecognising and acting on this reality that we can protect andenhance biodiversity and improve our economic prosperity.
We can estimate the value of ‘natural capital’ – the planet’s stock ofrenewable and non-renewable natural resources, like plants, soils
and minerals – alongside values of produced and human capital –for example, roads and skills – which together form a measure of acountry’s true wealth. Data from the United Nations Environment
Programme shows that, per person, our global stock of natural
capital has declined by nearly 40% since the early 1990s, while
produced capital has doubled and human capital has increased
by 13%.
But too few of our economic and financial decision-makers know
how to interpret what we are hearing, or, even worse, they choose
not to tune in at all. A key problem is the mismatch between theartificial ‘economic grammar’ which drives public and private policyand ‘nature’s syntax’ which determines how the real world operates.
Together this evidence shows that biodiversity conservation is morethan an ethical commitment for humanity: it is a non-negotiable
and strategic investment to preserve our health, wealthand security.

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Can we reverse these trends of decline? WWF co-founded a newresearch initiative – the Bending the Curve Initiative – that hasdeveloped pioneering modelling, providing a ‘proof of concept’
that we can halt, and reverse, terrestrial biodiversity loss fromland-use change. And the models are all telling us the same thing:that we still have an opportunity to flatten, and reverse, the loss ofnature if we take urgent and unprecedented conservation action
and make transformational changes in the way we produce andconsume food.
2020 was billed as a ‘super year’ of climate, biodiversity andsustainable development meetings in which the international
community had great plans to take the reins of the Anthropocene.
The COVID-19 pandemic has meant that most of these conferences
are now scheduled for 2021, and has provided a stark reminder of
how nature and humans are intertwined.
Until now, decades of words and warnings have not changed
modern human society’s business-as-usual trajectory. Yet in timesof rapid upheaval and disruption new ideas, creativity, processes
and opportunities for transformation can arise. The future is always
uncertain but perhaps the COVID-19 pandemic will spur us on toembrace this unexpected opportunity and revolutionise how wetake care of our home.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 8

EXPLORE MORE

Our world in 2020

• Serious declines in species population trends
are a measure of overall ecosystem health, andour planet is flashing red warning signs.
• The 2020 global Living Planet Index shows
an average 68% fall in monitored vertebrate
species populations between 1970 and 2016.
• The 94% decline in the LPI for the tropicalsubregions of the Americas is the largest fall
observed in any region.
• In addition to mammals, birds, reptiles,
amphibians and fish, this chapter also
uncovers trends from the tiniest creatures tothe canopy, looking at soil biodiversity, insects
and – for the first time – plants.

• Global economic growth since WWII has
driven exponential human improvements, yet
this has come at a huge cost to the stability ofEarth’s operating systems that sustain us.
• Humans are now overusing the Earth’s
biocapacity by at least 56%.
• Land-use change due to where and how we
produce food, is one of the biggest threats
humans pose to biodiversity.
• Our ocean is also in hot water, withoverfishing, pollution, coastal development
and climate change causing a growing
spectrum of adverse effects across marine
ecosystems.

CHAPTER 2

An SOS for nature

People and nature areintertwined

Imagining a roadmap for
people and nature• The alteration of the world’s natural systems
threatens to undo the extraordinary gains
in human health and well-being of the past
century.
• Urgent action is needed to address the lossof the biodiversity that feeds the world.
• There is a fundamental mismatch between
artificial ‘economic grammar’ and ‘nature’s
syntax’ which determines how the realworld operates.
• It is now becoming ever clearer thatbiodiversity is a non-negotiable and strategic
investment to preserve our health, wealthand security.

• Pioneering biodiversity modelling helps us toimagine the future, asking ‘What if humanity
takes different pathways?’• The Bending the Curve Initiative has provided‘proof of concept’ that we can halt, andreverse, the loss of nature while feeding a
growing population.
• Bending the curve of biodiversity loss istechnologically and economically possible,
but it will require truly transformationalchange in the way we produce and consume
food and in how we sustainably manage andconserve nature.

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 1

AT A GLANCE•F reshwater deep dive: Freshwater ecosystems are some of the world’s most vulnerable. This deep dive
explores freshwater status and trends, drivers of change and an outlook for recovery.
•C limate deep dive: Climate change is already affecting biodiversity, and this deep dive explores its current
and future impacts.
•V oices for a Living Planet: A special supplement complementing the LPR story brings together acollection of short opinion essays – written by thinkers and practitioners from different countries and cultures
around the globe – on how to build a resilient and healthy planet for people and nature.

9CHAPTER 1

AN SOS FOR NATURE
The evidence is unequivocal – nature is being changed anddestroyed by us at a rate unprecedented in history. The 2020
global Living Planet Index shows an average 68% fall in
populations of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish
between 1970 and 2016. In this chapter we also look at life in
the soil beneath our feet, insects, “the little things that run theworld”, and plants, all of which provide fundamental support
for life on Earth. From the biggest to the smallest living thingson our planet, monitoring shows us that nature is in serious
decline.
Black-browed albatross (Diomedea / Thalassarche melanophrys) with chickon nest, Steeple Jason, Falkland Islands.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 10© naturepl.com / Andy Rouse / WWF

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BIODIVERSITY ON THE BRINK:WE KNOW IT IS CRASHING
Biodiversity as we know it today is fundamental to humanlife on Earth, and the evidence is unequivocal – it is being
destroyed by us at a rate unprecedented in history.
Sir Robert Watson,
Tyndall Centre for Climate
Change Research

Since the industrial revolution, human activities have increasingly
destroyed and degraded forests, grasslands, wetlands and otherimportant ecosystems, threatening human well-being. Seventyfive per cent of the Earth’s ice-free land surface has already beensignificantly altered, most of the oceans are polluted, and morethan 85% of the area of wetlands has been lost. This destructionof ecosystems has led to 1 million species (500,000 animals andplants and 500,000 insects) being threatened with extinction
over the coming decades to centuries, although many of theseextinctions are preventable if we conserve and restore nature 1.
The most important direct driver of biodiversity loss in terrestrial
systems in the last several decades has been land-use change,
primarily the conversion of pristine native habitats (forests,
grasslands and mangroves) into agricultural systems; while muchof the oceans has been overfished. Since 1970, these trends havebeen driven in large part by a doubling of the world’s humanpopulation, a fourfold increase in the global economy, and a tenfold
increase in trade.
The challenge is to transform agricultural and fishing practices,many of which are unsustainable today, into ones that produce
the affordable and nourishing food we need while protecting
and conserving biodiversity. For agriculture, this means using
sustainable agroecological practices, reducing the use of chemicals,
fertilisers and pesticides, and protecting our soils and pollinators.
Globally, climate change has not been the most important driver ofthe loss of biodiversity to date, yet in coming decades it is projected
to become as, or more, important than the other drivers. Climatechange adversely affects genetic variability, species richness andpopulations, and ecosystems. In turn, loss of biodiversity canadversely affect climate – for example, deforestation increases theatmospheric abundance of carbon dioxide, a key greenhouse gas.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 12

Therefore, it is essential that the issues of biodiversity loss andclimate change are addressed together.
While the Paris Agreement is an important step towards limiting
human-induced climate change, the current pledges from its
signatories are totally inadequate to achieve its targets, with global
emissions projected to be about the same in 2030 as they are today.
Global temperatures could reach the 1.5oC aspirational target by theearly to mid-2030s, and the 2oC threshold by 2050-2070. Without
additional actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions we are ona pathway to a rise of 3-4oC, which will have devastating effects on
biodiversity and human well-being.
The loss of biodiversity is not only an environmental issue but adevelopment, economic, global security, ethical and moral one. The
continued loss of biodiversity will undermine the achievement of
most of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, including poverty
alleviation and food, water and energy security. Biodiversity has
significant economic value, which should be recognised in national
accounting systems; it is a security issue insofar as the loss ofnatural resources, especially in poor developing countries, canlead to conflict; it is an ethical issue because loss of biodiversity
hurts the poorest people who depend on it, further exacerbating
an already inequitable world; and it is a moral issue because wehumans should not destroy the living planet.
It is also a self-preservation issue. Biodiversity plays a critical rolein providing food, fibre, water, energy, medicines and other genetic
materials; and is key to the regulation of our climate, water quality,
pollution, pollination services, flood control and storm surges. In
addition, nature underpins all dimensions of human health andcontributes on non-material levels – inspiration and learning,
physical and psychological experiences, and shaping our identities– that are central to quality of life and cultural integrity.

In 2019, drawing on almost 15,000 references and the expertiseof more than 150 natural and social scientists from more than 50
countries, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform
on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) publishedits first global assessment on the state of the Earth’s biodiversity,
the Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem
Services 1. Established in Panama City in 2012 by 94 governments,
IPBES is an independent intergovernmental body established tostrengthen the science-policy interface for biodiversity and ecosystemservices for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity,
long-term human well-being and sustainable development.

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THE LIVING PLANET INDEX:AN EARLY WARNING INDICATOR ON THE
HEALTH OF NATURE
Species population trends are important because they are ameasure of overall ecosystem health. Serious declines are a
proxy for the unravelling of nature and our planet is flashing
red warnings signs of systems failure.
Louise McRae, Stefanie Deinet,
Valentina Marconi, Kate Scott-Gatty
and Robin Freeman (ZSL)The Living Planet Index (LPI) now tracks the abundance ofalmost 21,000 populations of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles andamphibians around the world. For two decades it has used thetrends that emerge as a measure for changes in biodiversity. The
building blocks for this indicator are wildlife population datasets
gathered from almost 4,000 sources. The majority of these are
publicly available and are found in scientific literature or in online
repositories of wildlife census data such as the African elephantdatabase 2 and the Australian Threatened Species Index data
portal 3.
The collection of population trend data is often time-consuming
and can be challenging. Increasingly, citizen scientists arevolunteering their time to count species, from birds to butterflies.
One of the longest-running bird surveys, the Audubon Christmas
Bird Count 4, has thousands of people counting the birds of North
America every year, and similar projects are expanding all overthe globe. Another example is the first State of India’s Birds
report that has been published using sightings data frombirdwatchers 5. The LPI is missing data for some species or places
that are challenging to monitor; however advancing technology
is set to change that as datasets are compiled in increasingly
sophisticated and varied ways. We now use audio devices tomonitor insect sounds 6, environmental DNA to track populations ofspecific species like polar bears 7, and drones to count wildlife more
precisely 8. Future editions of the LPI will be able to incorporate thistrend data as it emerges.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 14

Thousands of population trends are brought together in the LPI to
calculate the average percentage change in population sizes since1970 using an index (Figure 1). The percentage doesn’t represent
the number of individual animals lost but reflects the average
proportional change in animal population sizes tracked over46 years.
Since the last Living Planet Report (2018) the number of species
represented has improved for the majority of regions andtaxonomic groups, with the biggest boost being to amphibian
species. New ways to discover and extract this data are underdevelopment, including the automatic identification of relevant
data sources using artificial intelligence. At present the LPI contains
data only for vertebrate species as, historically, these have been
better monitored; but efforts to incorporate data on invertebrates
are underway as we try to broaden our understanding of changes
in wildlife populations. These efforts are starting with insects,
including a European grassland butterfly LPI.
Understanding how species populations may change in years tocome is another huge challenge, and new techniques – such aspredictive modelling and machine learning – are starting to help
us see how wildlife might respond to projected future changes inclimate and land use (see the scenarios in Chapter 4).

15

At a population level: in 2020 what does the Living
Planet Index show?
The 2020 global Living Planet Index shows an average 68%
decrease in monitored vertebrate species populations between 1970
and 2016.
Using the data from 20,811 populations of 4,392 species, the 2020
global LPI shows an average 68% decline in monitored populations
between 1970 and 2016 (range: -73% to -62%).
This year’s index includes 400 new species and 4,870 new
populations. The representation of neotropical amphibians has
increased the most as we try to fill data gaps for tropical species.
Adding new data and taxa into the Living Planet Database, thecollection of population trends that are the key components of
the LPI, helps to make the index a better reflection of trends inbiodiversity. Adding these new data updates all of the annual LPI
values and accounts for the differences seen between each versionof the LPI (see technical supplement).
The 2020 global LPI runs from 1970 to 2016, starting at a value of 1
in 1970. This was set as a common starting year for many indicators
because not enough earlier information is available; and it ends in2016 to reflect the latest year for which there is a good amount ofdata and the time lag in collecting, processing and publishing it.

2

Index value (1970 = 1)

Figure 1: The global Living
Planet Index: 1970 to 2016
Average abundance of 20,811
populations representing 4,392
species monitored across theglobe declined by 68%. The whiteline shows the index values andthe shaded areas represent thestatistical certainty surrounding
the trend (range: -73% to -62%).
Source - WWF/ZSL (2020) 107.

1

- 68%

Key
Global Living Planet Index
Confidence limits

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 16

0
1970

1980

1990

2000

2010

2016

The LPI explained

How to read the Living Planet Index• In 2020, the LPI shows an average rate of decline in population
size of 68% between 1970 and 2016.
• The LPI now tracks the abundance of almost 21,000 populationsof mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians around theworld.
• The LPI includes data for threatened and non-threatened
species – if it’s monitored consistently over time, it goes in!
• Species and populations in the LPI are increasing, declining
or stable.
• About half of the species in the LPI show an average decline in
population size.

Figure 2: Locations of
Living Planet Index species
populations
Locations of Living Planet Index
species populations. Map showing
the locations of the monitored
populations in the LPI. Newly
added populations since the lastreport are highlighted in orange orin yellow for species new to the LPI.
Source: WWF/ZSL (2020) 107.
Key
New species
New populations
Existing data

What the LPI does not tell us• The LPI doesn’t show numbers of species lost or extinctions.
• It does not mean that X% of species or populations are declining.
• Or that X% of populations or individuals have been lost.

17

Biodiversity is declining at different rates in different places
The global LPI does not give us the entire picture – there are differences inabundance trends between regions, with the largest declines in tropical areas.
In 2019, the landmark IPBES global assessmenton the state of biodiversity divided the world into
different geographic regions (Figure 3) in order
to complete regular and timely assessments of
biodiversity, ecosystem services, their linkages,
threats, and the impacts of these at regional andsub-regional levels 1. Using a smaller spatial

scale of regions and sub-regions, rather than aglobal approach, also allows for a more focused
way of monitoring progress towards targets
developed under the Convention
on Biological Diversity,

Index value (1970 = 1)

2

1

- 33%

0

Figure 3: The Living PlanetIndex for each IPBES region:1970 to 2016 9
The white line shows the index
values and the shaded areas
represent the statistical certainty
surrounding the trend (95%).
All indices are weighted by species
richness, giving species-richtaxonomic groups in terrestrial andfreshwater systems more weight
than groups with fewer species.
Source - WWF/ZSL (2020) 107.

1980

1990

2010

2000

2016

2

Index value (1970 = 1)

1970

1

- 94%

0

1970

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 18

1980

1990

2000

2010

2016

including the Aichi Biodiversity Targets,
Sustainable Development Goals, and National
Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans. In
2020, in order to align with IPBES, regional
Living Planet indices have been divided slightly
differently to previous years. Following theregional classifications in Figure 3, all terrestrial
and freshwater populations within a country
were assigned to an IPBES region. In the case of

the Americas, this region was further subdivided
in two: North America, and Latin America andthe Caribbean (Mesoamerica, the Caribbean
and South America combined). Trends for eachspecies group are weighted according to how
many species are found in each IPBES region.
Threats to populations in each region are shownon page 21, and detail behind the trends can befound in the technical supplement.

Index value (1970 = 1)

2

1

- 24%

0

1970

1990

1980

2010

2000

2016

Index value (1970 = 1)

2

1

- 45%
0

1970

1980

1990

2000

2010

2016

Index value (1970 = 1)

2

1

- 65%
0

1970

1980

1990

2000

2010

2016

19

Threats to biodiversity
Changes in land and sea use, including habitat loss and degradation
This refers to the modification of the environment where a species lives, by complete
removal, fragmentation or reduction in quality of key habitat. Common changes in
use are caused by unsustainable agriculture, logging, transportation, residential orcommercial development, energy production and mining. For freshwater habitats,fragmentation of rivers and streams and abstraction of water are common threats.

Species overexploitation
There are both direct and indirect forms of overexploitation. Direct overexploitationrefers to unsustainable hunting and poaching or harvesting, whether for subsistenceor for trade. Indirect overexploitation occurs when non-target species are killed
unintentionally, for example as bycatch in fisheries.

Invasive species and disease
Invasive species can compete with native species for space, food and other resources,
can turn out to be a predator for native species, or spread diseases that were notpreviously present in the environment. Humans also transport new diseases from one
area of the globe to another.

Pollution
Pollution can directly affect a species by making the environment unsuitable for its
survival (this is what happens, for example, in the case of an oil spill). It can also affecta species indirectly, by affecting food availability or reproductive performance, thus
reducing population numbers over time.

Climate change
As temperatures change, some species will need to adapt by shifting their range to
track a suitable climate. The effects of climate change on species are often indirect.
Changes in temperature can confound the signals that trigger seasonal events suchas migration and reproduction, causing these events to happen at the wrong time(for example misaligning reproduction and the period of greater food availability in a
specific habitat).

Figure 4: Different threat types in the Living
Planet Database
Descriptions of the major threat categories used in the
Living Planet Database. This classification reflects the
direct drivers with the largest global impact as identified
by IPBES 1; it is also followed by the IUCN Red List and isbased on the original classification by Salafsky, N. et al.
(2010) 10. Source WWF/ZSL (2020) 107.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 20

Figure 5: The proportion of threats
recorded in each category for
populations in each IPBES region 9
The number of populations with threatdata available is shown next to the pie
chart 107. The colour of each section refers to
the colour for each threat category on the
opposite page.

Regional threats to populations in the LPI
5%

14.4%

2

52.5%

17.9%

Index value (1970 = 1)

10.2%

1

- 33%

NORTH AMERICA

0

1970

4%

10.9%
57.9%

19.7%

1990

2000

2010

2016

2

Index value (1970 = 1)

7.5%

1980

1

- 24%

EUROPE AND
CENTRAL ASIA

0

1970

1980

1990

2000

2010

2016

2.3%

12.5%

12.2%

51.2%

21.8%

Index value (1970 = 1)

2

LATIN AMERICA& CARIBBEAN

1

- 94%

0

1970

2.8% 4.1%

1980

1990

2000

2010

2016

11.6%
45.9%
35.5%

Index value (1970 = 1)

2

AFRICA

1

- 65%
0

1970

5%

43%
26.9%

Index value (1970 = 1)

11%
14%

1980

1990

2000

2010

2016

2

1

- 45%

ASIA PACIFIC

0

1970

1980

1990

2000

2010

2016

21

Zooming in on Latin America and the Caribbean
The 94% decline in the LPI for the tropical subregions of theAmericas is the most striking result observed in any region. The
conversion of grasslands, savannahs, forests and wetlands, theoverexploitation of species, climate change, and the introduction ofalien species are key drivers.
Stefanie Deinet andLouise McRae (ZSL),
Paula Valdujo (WWF-Brazil)
and Marcio Martins(Universidade de São Paulo)

Much of the overall decline in the 2020 Latin America andCaribbean LPI is driven by very negative trends in reptiles,
amphibians and fish – groups which, according to our data, areeach affected by a different cocktail of threats. For reptiles, theseinclude land-use change and overexploitation. Freshwater fish areaffected most by overexploitation in this dataset; however, habitat
fragmentation due to hydropower development is already severely
impacting populations in this region 11 and is predicted to pose aneven greater threat in the future 12.
For amphibians, disease and habitat loss are the biggest threats.
The Atlantic Forest in Brazil has lost 87.6% of its natural vegetation
since 1500, mostly during the last century, which has led to atleast two amphibian extinctions and 46 species threatened withextinction 13. The infection rate of the chytrid fungus, which is
impacting amphibians worldwide, is high among Atlantic Forest
amphibians 14; and this, combined with climate change and landuse change, might have an even more dramatic impact on their
populations in the coming decades.
More than 2,000 species of amphibian are threatened withextinction 15, the highest current estimate among vertebrategroups. For amphibians in the LPI, disease is the main recorded
threat. In El Copé in the highlands of central Panama, the chytrid
fungus caused mass mortality, leading to the loss of 30 amphibian
species and severely reducing the diversity of the local amphibiancommunity 16.

Tree frog in the rain, Manu National Park, Peru.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 22

Image from the Our Planet series, © Paul Stewart / Netflix / Silverback

23

The Freshwater Living Planet Index
On average, population trends for monitored freshwater species
appear to be falling steeply, with megafauna particularly at risk.
Louise McRae, Stefanie Deinet,
Valentina Marconi, Kate Scott-Gatty
and Robin Freeman (ZSL)

Almost one in three freshwater species are threatened withextinction, with all taxonomic groups showing a higher risk ofextinction in the freshwater, compared to the terrestrial,
system 106. If we look at population trends using the Living PlanetIndex, a similar story emerges.
The 3,741 monitored populations – representing 944 species
of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fishes – in the
Freshwater Living Planet Index have declined by an average of
84% (range: -89% to -77%), equivalent to 4% per year since1970. Most of the declines are seen in freshwater amphibians,
reptiles and fishes; and they’re recorded across all regions,particularly Latin America and the Caribbean (see page 22).
Habitat degradation through pollution or flow modification,overexploitation, invasive species 108 and sand mining in rivers 109
is among the threats affecting freshwater species. Conservation
action often fails to target freshwater species or habitats 110-112, partly
because the protection of freshwater environments often requires
large-scale, multi-sectoral efforts 113.

Key
Freshwater Living Planet
Index
Confidence limits

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 24

2

Index value (1970 = 1)

Figure 6: The Freshwater
Living Planet Index: 1970 to2016
The average abundance of
3,741 freshwater populations,representing 944 species,
monitored across the globe declined
by 84% on average. The whiteline shows the index values andthe shaded areas represent thestatistical certainty surrounding
the trend (range: -89% to -77%) 107.

1

- 84%
0
1970

1980

1990

2000

2010

2016

The bigger the size, the bigger the threatsSpecies with a larger body size compared with other species in thesame taxonomic group are sometimes referred to as ‘megafauna’.
Across the world, these species are particularly at risk 114: they tend
to be less resilient to changes in the environment because theygenerally require complex and large habitats, reproduce at a laterstage in life and have fewer offspring 115.
In the freshwater system, megafauna are species that grow tomore than 30kg, such as sturgeon and Mekong giant catfish, riverdolphins, otters, beavers and hippos. They are subject to intense
anthropogenic threats 116, including overexploitation 114, and strong
population declines have been observed as a result 117. Mega-fishes
are particularly vulnerable. Catches in the Mekong river basin
between 2000 and 2015, for example, have decreased for 78%
of species, and declines are stronger among medium- to largebodied species 118. Large fishes are also heavily impacted by dam
construction, which blocks their migratory routes to spawning andfeeding grounds 116, 119.
Large-scale cross-boundary collaboration is required to effectively
protect freshwater species 113, and some persistent conservation
efforts have proved successful. The Eurasian beaver (Castor fiber),for instance, has now been reintroduced into many countries fromwhich it had disappeared, including Czechia, Estonia, Finland,
Sweden and the UK 120.

Close up of the head of a West Indian
manatee (Trichechus manatus) underwater, Crystal River, Florida.

© WWF / Vincent Kneefel

25

The Living Planet Index is one indicator among
many showing severe declines or changes in recent
decades
Humanity’s influence on the decline of nature is so great thatscientists believe we are entering a new geological epoch, theAnthropocene. Yet, measuring biodiversity, the variety of all living
things, is complex, and there is no single measure that can capture
all of the changes in this web of life. Nevertheless, the vast majority
of indicators show net declines over recent decades.
Piero Visconti (IIASA),
Robin Freeman (ZSL)ABUNDANCEThe LPI measures the population abundance of thousands ofvertebrate species around the world. Other indices measuredifferent things, or have broader taxonomic breadth, giving us
different information about how biodiversity is responding tohuman pressures, as well as conservation interventions.
Indicators of the extent and structural condition of ecosystems,of the composition of ecological communities, and of species
populations overwhelmingly show net declines over recent
decades 17. In this report we have included the IUCN Red List Index
that tracks extinction risk; the Mean Species Abundance Index
and Biodiversity Intactness Index that look at changes in species
community composition; and the Species Habitat Index thatmeasures changes in species distribution.

Extinction risk: the IUCN Red List Index
Stuart Butchart (BirdLife International),
Craig Hilton-Taylor (IUCN)

EXTINCTION RISKWWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 26

Humans have driven at least 680 species of vertebrates, the beststudied taxonomic group, to extinction since 1500 1. This equates
to ~1% of species in these groups. Many other species are
now at elevated risk of extinction owing to human impacts.
The IUCN Red List represents the most comprehensive andobjective system for assessing the relative risk of extinction of
species 15. Over 100,000 species have now been evaluated using
information on life-history traits, population and distribution sizeand structure, and their change over time to assign each species
into one of eight categories (Extinct, Extinct in the Wild, CriticallyEndangered, Endangered, Vulnerable, Near Threatened, Least
Concern or Data Deficient). For five groups in which all species
have been assessed at least twice, the Red List Index (RLI) showstrends over time in their relative survival probability based on these
Red List categories. Baseline RLI values are available for a rangeof additional groups that have only been assessed once. These datashows that cycads (an ancient group of plants) are most threatened,
while corals are declining fastest.

Community composition: the Mean Species
Abundance Index and Biodiversity Intactness Index
Biological communities can change fundamentally as a resultof human pressures compared to what they would have been inpristine conditions, even without any species going locally extinct.
Tracking community composition – the species that are present
and their local abundances – can give an indication of both theintactness and functioning of ecosystems. The Mean Species
Abundance (MSA) Index 18 and Biodiversity Intactness
Index (BII) 19, are two modelled indices that estimate theintactness of animal and plant communities spatially. The indices
range from 100-0%, with 100 representing an undisturbed naturalenvironment with little to no human footprint. The MSA Index
has fallen to 66% of its pre-impact value and is falling by 1.1% per
decade, whereas the BII has fallen to 79% of its pre-impact value
and is declining by 0.8% per decade 1. Both the MSA and BII areprojected to continue to decline under business-as-usual socioeconomic trends.

Andy Purvis (Natural History Museum)

COMPOSITION

Species distribution: the Species Habitat Index
Species distributions are dynamic by nature, with local populations
constantly adapting to the environment. The magnitude ofthese dynamics has, however, been greatly altered by humanpressures, especially those that have caused the loss of habitats.
The Species Habitat Index captures changes in species range andincorporates information about species habitat preferences withobserved or modelled data on habitat loss and restoration, habitat
fragmentation and climate change. This index has fallen by 1% per
decade since 1970 20 and, on average, the geographic distributionof terrestrial mammals, the only group for which baseline
distribution could be estimated, has been reduced to 83% of
pre-impact values 21.

Walter Jetz (Yale University)

DISTRIBUTION

27

Index value (1970 = 1)

2

1

ABUNDANCE

- 68%
0
1970

1980

Living Planet Index
The Living Planet Index (LPI) now tracks the abundance ofalmost 21,000 populations of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles
and amphibians around the world 107. Using the data from
20,811 populations of 4,392 species, the 2020 global LPI
shows an average 68% decline in monitored populations

2000

1990

2010

2016

between 1970 and 2016 (range: -73% to -62%). The percentagechange in the index doesn’t represent the number of individual
animals lost but reflects the average proportional change inanimal population sizes tracked over 46 years.

1

Species Habitat Index

0.995

DISTRIBUTION

0.990

0.985

0.980

0.975
2001

Species Habitat Index
Human land-use change, and increasingly climate change, arealtering landscapes worldwide. Remotely sensed monitoringand model-based projections offer an increasingly strong
and near-global capture of these changes to the land cover.
The Species Habitat Index (SHI) quantifies the resulting
implications for species populations 24, 25. For thousands ofspecies with validated habitat associations worldwide theindex measures the losses in habitat-suitable range fromWWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 28

2005

2010

2015

2018

observed or modelled habitat change 26. Between 2000 and2018 the index has fallen by 2%, indicating a strong andgeneral downward trend in habitat available to species. For
select regions and species the SHI decrease is much steeper,with double-digit percentage losses suggesting extensive
contractions in total population sizes and thus the ecologicalroles provided by species.

Red List Index of species survival

1.0

Bony fishes Cone snails

Corals

BetterDragonflies

Birds

0.9

Monocots

ReptilesCrustaceans

Mammals
0.8

Legumes

Sharks & rays

Conifers

Amphibians
0.7

0.6

EXTINCTION RISK

Cycads
Worse

0.5

1970

1980

1990

2000

Red List Index
The Red List Index, based on data from the IUCN Red List of
Threatened Species 15, shows trends in survival probability(the inverse of extinction risk) over time 22. A Red List Index
value of 1.0 equates to all species within a group qualifying as
Least Concern (i.e. not expected to become Extinct in the near

2010

2020

future 22). An index value of 0 equates to all species having
gone Extinct. A constant value over time indicates that theoverall extinction risk for the group is unchanged. If the rateof biodiversity loss were reducing, the index would show an
upward trend. A decline in the index means that species arebeing driven towards extinction at an accelerating rate.

BII by IPBES region

1

0.8
GlobalAmericas
Asia Pacific
AfricaEurope - Central Asia

2014

COMPOSITION

0.6

1700

1750

1800

1850

1900

Biodiversity Intactness Index
The Biodiversity Intactness Index (BII) estimates how muchoriginally present biodiversity remains on average acrossthe terrestrial ecological communities within a region. It
focuses on the effects of land use and related pressures, whichhave so far been the dominant drivers of biodiversity loss 27, 1.
Because it is estimated across a very large set of ecologicallydiverse animal and plant species, the BII is a useful index ofecosystems’ ability to provide benefits to people (ecosystem

1950

2000

services). For this reason, it is used in the Planetary
Boundaries framework as an indicator of biosphere
integrity 28. The global average BII (79%) is well below
the proposed lower safe limit (90%) and continues to fall,especially in Africa 19 (note the steep decline in the brown line
above), suggesting that the world’s terrestrial biodiversity
is already dangerously compromised. The BII is very low
in some regions, such as Western Europe, that have a long
history of intensive use of the landscape (for a global BII map,see the technical supplement).

29

Uncovering trends from the tiniest
creatures to the canopy
From the biggest to the smallest living things on Earth,monitoring tells us that nature is under serious pressure.
Tigers and polar bears are well-known poster species in thestory of biodiversity decline, but what of the billions of tiny or
as-yet-undiscovered species that are also under threat? Whatis happening to the life in our soils, biodiversity that plays acritical role in the ecosystem services on which we depend?
Or to insects in tropical regions in light of studies in North
America and Europe that may represent an early warning forthe rest of the world?
For the first time this Living Planet Report also investigates thestatus of plants, which provide fundamental support for life on
Earth and are the basis of virtually all terrestrial ecosystems.
The number of documented terrestrial plant extinctions is twice
as high as for mammals, birds and amphibians combined.

Leaf-cutter bee (Megachile sp) andmilkweed, Highmore, South Dakota, USA.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 30

© WWF-US / Clay Bolt

31

SOIL BIODIVERSITY: SAVING THE WORLDBENEATH OUR FEET
Soil is a critical component of the natural environment – yetmost people are totally unaware of, or underestimate, the vitalrole that soil biodiversity plays in the ecosystem services on
which we depend.
Monica Kobayashi andRonald Vargas (FAO/GSP)

Soil hosts one of the largest reservoirs of biodiversity on Earth:
up to 90% of living organisms in terrestrial ecosystems, including
some pollinators, spend part of their life cycle in soil habitats 29.
The variety of soil components, filled with air and water, create
an incredible diversity of habitats for a myriad of different soilorganisms that underpin our life on this planet.
Besides food production, soil biodiversity provides a vast rangeof ecosystem functions and services, including soil formation,
the retention and purification of water, nutrient cycling, thedegradation of some soil contaminants and the regulation ofgreenhouse gases, as well as sustaining plant, animal andhuman health.
Without soil biodiversity, terrestrial ecosystems may collapse.
We now know that above- and belowground biodiversity are in
constant collaboration 30-32, and an improved understanding of
this relationship will help to better predict the consequences of
biodiversity change and loss.
The Status of the World’s Soil Resources 33 concluded that the lossof soil biodiversity is considered one of the major soil threats inmany regions of the world. Some responses to bend the curve of
biodiversity loss include sustainable use of soil genetic resources
and improved soil management to safeguard soil biota as well as
its multiple functions 34. Future agricultural systems may need to
combine traditional practices, nature-based solutions and novel
technologies such as artificial intelligence, DNA sequencing andmicrobiome-based precision farming.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 32

Additionally, policies on land use, agriculture, ecosystems
restoration, climate change mitigation and adaptation, pollution
remediation and urban planning should highlight the importanceof healthy soils in order to reduce threats to soil biodiversity
and people.
Figure 7: Soil communities
Soil biodiversity underpins terrestrial
ecosystems (agricultural, urban, nature
and all biomes, including forests,
grasslands, tundra and deserts). Here,animals are divided into layers by size
but in reality, animals are distributed
throughout the soil.

MEGAFAUNA
MACROFAUNAMESOFAUNA
MICROBES & MICROFAUNA

Soil organisms vary from 20nm to 20-30cm and are traditionally divided into four
size classes 121, 122, 123.
Megafauna (20mm+) vertebrates (mammalia, reptilia and amphibia). They create
spatial heterogeneity on the soil surface and in its profile through movement.
Macrofauna (2mm-20mm) are large soil invertebrates (earthworms, enchytraeids,
woodlice, myriapods, insect larvae). They are ecosystem engineers, moving throughthe soil, thus perturbing the soil and increasing water permeability, soil aeration,and creating new habitats for smaller organisms. Their faeces are hotspots for
microbial diversity and activity.
Mesofauna (0.1-2mm) are soil microarthropods (mites, apterygota, smalllarvae of insects). They live in soil cavities filled with air and form coprogenic
microaggregates; increase the surface of active biochemical interactions in the soil;
participate in the transformation of soil organic matter.
Microbes (viruses, bacteria, archaea, fungi; 20nm-10um) and Microfauna(soil protozoa and nematodes; 10um - 0.1mm) mostly live in soil solutions ingravitational, capillary and hygroscopic water; they participate in decompositionof soil organic matter, as well as in the weathering of minerals in the soil. Theirdiversity depends on the conditions of microhabitats and on the physicochemical
properties of soil horizons.

33

Soil biodiversity and agricultural ecosystems
Soil biodiversity keeps us alive, so we need to ensure that we stop
destroying it. With this in mind, the European Commission’s Joint
Research Centre is carrying out genetic analyses of the soils of theEuropean Union to measure how their diversity is related to specificland uses and the presence of pollutants.
Monica Kobayashi andRonald Vargas (FAO/GSP)
and Alberto Orgiazzi
and Arwyn Jones (JRC)The State of the World’s Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture
report 35 concluded that many species living in and aroundproduction systems, particularly microorganisms and invertebrates,
have never been documented. In many cases, the contributionsof specific biodiversity components to production systems arepoorly understood. Increasing soil organisms’ diversity is linked
to an increase in soil functions and the provision of services. This
includes support to plant growth as well as higher nutrient use
efficiency 36. Soil biota also help to build resilience and to control,
prevent or suppress pests and diseases 37. Diversification ofagricultural systems and improved tree cover can also contributeto enhancing below- and aboveground biodiversity and, as a result,the ecosystem services it provides 38. Understanding and promoting
these soil dynamics could help not only to protect plants, animals
and humans; it could also help us to live in harmony with nature.
In addition to agriculture, the European Commission’s Joint
Research Centre (JRC) has identified the key drivers ofpressures on soil organisms. These include climate change (bothtemperature and precipitation have significant effects on soildwelling communities), land-use change (especially the sealingof soil by impervious layers such as asphalt or concrete), habitat
fragmentation, intensive human exploitation, soil organic matter
decline, pollution (including industrial emissions), and theintroduction and diffusion of invasive alien species 39.
Researchers are starting to better understand the complexity of soil
biodiversity which is composed of microorganisms, macro- andmegafauna. Some threats, like pesticides, may potentially impact
only a single entity of soil-dwelling organisms, and at different
levels of intensity. However, the loss of a single element may cause
the collapse of the entire food web. Other threats, such as erosion
or soil-sealing, can result in the complete – and in some cases
irreversible – loss of habitat 40.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 34

For this reason, the JRC is currently conducting an assessment ofsoil biodiversity across the European Union as part of the Land
Use and Coverage Area frame Survey (LUCAS) 41. Through genomic
analysis, the diversity of soil organisms will be measured in relation
to specific land uses (e.g. different farming systems) and thepresence of pollutants, such as metals and pesticide residues.

© Graham Montgomery

A two-pronged bristletail (Order
Diplura) in Ithica, NY.

35

PLANT DIVERSITY IS IN SERIOUS DECLINE
Plants are the structural and ecological foundation of virtually
all terrestrial ecosystems and provide fundamental support
for life on Earth. They are vital to human health, food andwell-being 42.
Eimear Nic Lughadha(Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew),
Alexandre Antonelli(Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew andGothenburg Global Biodiversity Centre)
and Aelys M Humphreys(Stockholm University)

On average, more than 2,000 plant species continue to be describedas new to science each year 43, adding to the total number ofknown vascular plant species, estimated to be between 340,000
to 390,000 44, 45. Yet, despite their importance to life on Earth, thestatus and trends of the world’s plants remain poorly understoodcompared to vertebrates, and they are usually omitted from global
analyses of biodiversity 46. Geographic, genetic and trait information
for plants, including their uses for humankind and function inecosystems, is even more incomplete 47. For example, about halfof the world’s plant species lack detailed distribution data 48, in
contrast to the range maps available for most vertebrates 15.

Plant diversity loss: documented and predicted
Only 10% of plants have been assessed for the global IUCN Red Listand current coverage is biased, with trees and threatened species
more likely to have been assessed 49. However, assessment of asample of thousands of species representing the taxonomic andgeographic breadth of global plant diversity showed that one in five(22%) are threatened with extinction, most of them in the tropics 50.
Plant extinction risk is comparable to that of mammals and higher
than for birds.
The number of documented plant extinctions is twice as many as
for mammals, birds and amphibians combined 51. Documenting
actual plant extinctions is more challenging than assessing
extinction risk because plants may live for years without being
detected and may therefore be erroneously declared extinct (seepage 38). Examples include many tropical plants that are naturallyrare 52 with small populations, and plants that are inconspicuous orpresent only as seeds in the soil.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 36

Conversely, plant species may be prominent in the landscape but
no longer regenerating and therefore functionally extinct, so they
are erroneously omitted from counts of extinct plants 53, 54. Halfof plant extinctions reported to have occurred since 1750 havebeen subsequently refuted (due to rediscovery or redefinition of
species) but those unrefuted indicate that seed plant extinctions are
occurring up to 500 times faster than in pre-industrial times 51.
Small-ranged species have long been understood to be particularly
susceptible to global extinction, because impacts are more likely toaffect their entire range 55. The loss of these relatively rare species,
even at the local scale, results in biotic homogenisation 56. Indeed,range size is the strongest predictor of extinction risk in plants,
followed by measures of human impact, such as population
density or the Human Footprint Index (explored in Chapter 2,) 57, 58.
Analysis of global Anthropocene extinctions shows high rates on
islands, in the tropics, of woody plants, and among those known tohave only narrow geographical ranges 51.

Causes of plant diversity loss
Agriculture, including expansion or intensification of crop or
livestock farming, plantations and aquaculture, is the mostfrequently identified threat to plants in IUCN Red List assessments.
Consistent with these assessments, habitat destruction and landuse changes, mainly urbanisation and agriculture-related, are themajor causes reported for plant extinctions 59. However, for mostplant extinctions, the cause remains unknown.
The threat to plants presented by climate change is, as yet, scarcely
detectable on the Red List, with just 4% of assessments citing
climate change or severe weather. The recent categorisation of wild
Arabica coffee as Endangered based on projected climate change
impacts, when it would otherwise have been assessed as Least
Concern 60, suggests that the Red List currently underestimatesthe impact of future climate change. The relative importance ofclimate versus land-use change will have practical implications forconservation planning over time 61.
If the dismal prospect of an increasingly uniform natural world is
not sufficient to win converts to the plant conservation cause, thenthe importance of plants to other life on Earth, including animals
and humans, needs to be more widely understood.

37

Plants that are extinct in the wild
Ex situ conservation, which preserves species outside
their natural habitat, provides us with options to prevent plant extinctions and to restore wild populations.
Colin Clubbe(Royal Botanic
Gardens, Kew)

The IUCN Red List categorises a plant as Extinct in the Wild
when it exists only in cultivation, or as a naturalised population
well outside its past range 62, 63. This category is only applied when
there is no reasonable doubt that the last individual in the wild has
died 63. However, proving extinction in the field is challenging andrediscoveries do occur, as was the case with the endemic Ascension
Island parsley fern (Anogramma ascensionis). Last seen on the
volcanic island in the South Atlantic Ocean in 1958 64, the parsleyfern was listed as Extinct on the 2003 IUCN Red List. However,a 2009 survey rediscovered four plants on the island’s Green
Mountain. Spores were collected and cultured in vitro at the Royal
Botanic Gardens, Kew, where a living collection is maintained 65.
Plants have been reintroduced on Ascension and the species
reassessed as Critically Endangered 66.
Nymphaea thermarum, illustrated here, became Extinct in the Wild
in 2008 when the last known plant died at its only known locationin Rwanda 67. Yet, a recent comprehensive review suggests there
may still be hope for the future of some plants: it documents 431
species, once declared to be globally Extinct or Extinct in the Wild,
that have since been rediscovered 51. The IUCN Red List documents
118 vascular plant species that are Extinct and 35 that are Extinct
in the Wild, while a recent review reports nearly 600 seed plant
species to have gone globally Extinct or Extinct in the Wild 51, 68.
The causes of extinction are varied but are largely driven byanthropogenic activities including invasive species, agriculturalintensification, and habitat loss and fragmentation. Ex situ
conservation encompasses a wide range of techniques to preserve
species outside their natural habitat, including seed-banking andcryopreservation (the use of very low temperatures to preserve
structurally intact living cells). These techniques provide us with
options for the future, and global efforts such as the Millennium
Seed Bank Partnership 69 have extensive seed-collecting
programmes in more than 100 countries and territories to provide
this interim protection of species.
Nymphaea thermarum, the world’s smallest waterlily, known only from the damp mud
created by the overflow from a single hot spring in Rwanda. The last plant desiccated anddied when the stream feeding the hot spring was diverted for local agriculture in 2008.
An ex situ collection is being maintained at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew: in the hopeof a possible reintroduction if this fragile habitat can be restored.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 38

© Andrew McRobb - Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew

39© Jenny Williams, RBG Kew

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 40

Useful plants: providers in peril
Ongoing plant diversity loss not only threatens
plants and their ecosystems, but also theinvaluable spectrum of services that plants provide
to people and the planet.
Plants provide a remarkable array of services, vital inmaintaining the health of the natural world and sustaining thedemands of an increasingly anthropogenic planet. However,relentless human population growth is putting a damaging
strain on the world’s plant diversity, and many with medicinal
properties, nutritional value and ornamental appeal are now
under threat of extinction.

SereneHargreaves andJack Plummer(Royal Botanic
Gardens, Kew)

Useful plants are susceptible to the drivers causing biodiversity
loss globally. For example, habitat loss, driven by agriculturalland conversion, has restricted the Madagascar banana to justthree individuals in the wild 70. Indian belladonna, possessing
similar medicinal properties to the related deadly nightshade,is threatened by deforestation, and overharvesting of its
leaves and roots for use by the pharmaceutical industry and in
traditional medicine systems 71-73. Climate change is projected
to sharply reduce the suitable habitat for indigenous Arabica
coffee. From healthcare to food security, and construction
materials to your morning coffee, a heightened extinction risk
for these plants has negative implications reaching far beyond
their local ecosystems.

Arabica coffee (Coffea arabica) is the world’s most popular coffee bean. An
extinction risk assessment which incorporated the likely effects of climate change
categorised C. arabica as Endangered, with a predicted loss of more than half its
natural population by 2088 74.

41

Tracking trees:building a picture of their global status
The first Global Tree Assessment will cover all 60,000 known
tree species across the planet to give us a complete picture of theconservation status of the world’s trees.
Malin Rivers and Emily Beech(Botanic Gardens Conservation
International)

The Global Tree Assessment is coordinated by Botanic Gardens
Conservation International and the IUCN/SSC Global Tree
Specialist Group 75. It works through an extensive global
collaborative partnership with national Red List organisations,botanic gardens, NGOs, forestry institutes, universities, herbaria
and taxonomic experts. Its goal is to produce a conservationassessment for every known tree species to identify and prioritise
conservation action for trees of greatest conservation concern.
First, a list of the world’s trees had to be collated. In April 2017,
GlobalTreeSearch – a checklist of 60,000 unique tree species
and their distribution – was completed 76. This list is continually
updated with new species, new distributions and taxonomicchanges. Second, a conservation assessment, using the IUCN Red
List categories and criteria, is needed for each of the 60,000 tree
species to evaluate their risk of extinction. In addition, information
on distribution, population trends, threats and conservation actions
is gathered.
The Global Tree Assessment will give us a complete picture of theconservation status of the world’s trees. Beyond trees the results
will also be vital for other biodiversity and ecosystems that dependon trees for their survival, to guide conservation action and ensurethat biodiversity is managed, restored and saved from extinction.

Terminalia acuminata, commonly known as Guarajuba, is an Endangered tree
endemic to Brazil. Previously thought to be Extinct in the Wild, it was rediscovered
when reassessed for the Global Tree Assessment.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 42

© Malin Rivers

43

ARE “THE LITTLE THINGS THAT RUN THE
WORLD” DISAPPEARING?
There is evidence of recent, rapid declines in insectabundance, diversity and biomass, but the picture is complex
and most evidence comes from a few taxa and a few countries
in the northern hemisphere.
Lynn Dicks
and Edgar Turner(University of Cambridge)

Insects dominate the animal kingdom in their sheer number of
species. More than a million have been described, but the latest
estimates suggest there may be as many as 5.5 million insect species
altogether, with most in the tropics 77. Insects carry out essential
roles in all terrestrial ecosystems, including pollinating plants,
regulating pests, processing nutrients in soil and providing food forother animals, leading E.O. Wilson to famously describe them as“the little things that run the world” 78.
In Western Europe and North America, insect monitoring
schemes and long-term studies show startlingly rapid, recent andongoing declines in insect numbers, distributions or collective
weight (biomass).
A recent analysis of wild bee and hoverfly records, collected by UK
naturalists, shows a net loss of 11 species (4 bees and 7 hoverflies)
per 1km2 between 1980 and 2013 79, the result of a third of species
reducing their range. The total abundance of large moths declinedin the UK by 31% between 1969 and 2016 80, while three-quarters of
UK ground beetle species declined in abundance between 1994 and2008, with half showing reductions of more than 30% 81.
There have been dramatic range declines in some North American
bumblebee species 82. In Germany, insect abundance declined by
78% and biomass by 67% between 2008 and 2017 in grassland
sites 83; and in a different set of sites overall insect biomass declinedby 76% between 1989 and 2016 84.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 44

The most comprehensive global review of long-term insect declines
in abundance and biomass to date, released earlier this year,
confirms widespread losses of terrestrial insects since 1925, witha mean global loss of 8.8% per decade. However, the study also
found a mean increase of 11.3% per decade for freshwater insects
over the same time period, which may reflect recovery from pastdegradation due to policies that have reduced water pollution in
North America and Europe 85. A general pattern is that habitat
specialists or rarer species are declining, while a subset of common
generalists are stable or even increasing 86-88, 79.

Number of datasets

50
40
20
0

Figure 8: Estimates of long-term change in terrestrial insect numbers(abundance or biomass), from 103 studies reviewed by Van Klink et al(2020) 85. Three-quarters of the studies (77/103) are from Europe and North
America, with very few from Africa (1), Asia (5, excluding Russia and the Middle
East) or South America (3). The inset shows a histogram of the number ofdatasets with at least one data point for each year.

1925

1950

1975

2000

2025

Key
Trend slope
Decrease

Increase

45

A focus on European butterflies:
the 2020 Butterfly Living Planet Index
Louise McRae andMonika Böhm (ZSL)
and Butterfly Conservationin Europe, European Butterfly
Monitoring Schemes andthe Assessing Butterflies in
Europe Consortium

Globally, butterflies are still very poorly represented on the IUCNRed List of Threatened Species, with only 978 of the ~20,000
described species currently assessed. Of these assessed species,
173 (~18%) are listed as threatened 15.
Although globally underrepresented, butterflies are one of theeasier insect groups to monitor as they are active during the day
and are usually fairly conspicuous. As a result they have beenmonitored long-term, and on a national scale, in many countries
in Europe 89.
While there are challenges in establishing schemes to regularlycollect data in a consistent manner, one way is to harness the
combined effort of trained professionals and volunteers who walk a
set route under specific weather conditions and record the numberof each butterfly species seen. The latest results show trends in 17
typical grassland butterfly species for 16 European countries over
28 years. The index shows a decline of 49% (range -71% to -13%)
between 1990 and 2017 (Figure 9). Six of the 17 species show adecline, seven are stable and four are increasing.
The decline in the butterfly index is largely attributed to theintensification of agriculture in Northwest Europe and theabandonment of grasslands in other areas 90. In Europe theseenvironmental pressures have existed for longer than the 1990
baseline shown here, therefore it’s possible that the populations ofthese butterfly species are in a poorer state than the results suggest.
For example, in the Netherlands, an estimated 84% decline, on
average, occurred between 1890 and 2017 for 71 butterfly species 91.
Protection and restoration of grasslands are needed to reverse thetrends and allow grassland butterfly populations to recover.
What is known about butterflies in the rest of the world?
Regular butterfly counts in Ohio, USA show numbers declining
at 2% per year, with a 33% reduction in numbers between 1996 and2016 92. An ongoing assessment of the extinction risk of the world’s
swallowtails – large, colourful butterflies in the Papilionidae family– has so far shown that ~14% of the 36 birdwing butterfly species,
the largest butterflies in the world, are threatened with extinction.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 46

© Chris van Swaay - Dutch Butterfly Conservation / Butterfly Conservation Europe

Figure 9: The Living PlanetIndex for European grassland
butterflies: 1990 to 2017
The abundance of 17 grassland butterfly
species declined by 49% on average.
The white line shows the index values
and the shaded areas represent thestatistical certainty surrounding thetrend (range: -71% to -13%). Data
contributed by Butterfly Conservation in
Europe, European Butterfly Monitoring
Scheme, Assessing Butterflies in Europe
Consortium 89. The LPI method differs
slightly to other analyses of the data 89
but the ranges overlap, meaning thatthe results are statistically similar.

The large skipper butterfly (Ochlodes sylvanus) is a widespread grassland species
within Europe and has shown a moderate decline in abundance of around 25%
between 1990 and 2017.

Index value (1990 = 1)

2

1

- 49%

Key
LPI for European grassland
butterflies

0

1990

2000

2010

2017

Confidence limits

47

Building a better picture of the insect world
Insect populations are plummeting, but much more data is needed
to better understand these trends around the world. Two initiatives
are underway to add to our current knowledge base.
Lynn Dicks and Edgar Turner(University of Cambridge),
Eliza Grames(University of Connecticut),
Graham Montgomery(University of California Los Angeles)
and Neal Haddaway(Stockholm Environment Institute)

There are few analyses of long-term insect datasets from thetropics or the southern hemisphere 85. Some of these datasets showless change than temperate studies. For example, fruit-feeding
butterflies fluctuated in abundance in eastern Ecuador between
1994 and 2004 94, and in a forest in Uganda between 2000 and 201195
, but with no obvious decline over time in either case. Orchidbees in Panama showed very high variability between years, but nooverall change in abundance between 1979 and 2000 96. In contrast,
a rainforest study in Puerto Rico found a very large drop in both
canopy and ground arthropod biomass between surveys carried out
in 1976 and 2012 93.
Given that the spread of intensive agriculture occurred earlier inWestern Europe and North America than in other regions 97, it
seems likely that the insect losses being observed there provide aforecast of global insect losses if anthropogenic disturbance andland-use change continue worldwide. Initiating long-term andlarge-scale monitoring is key to understanding current and futurelevels of insect population change 96.
An example of such a scheme in the tropics is the ForestGEO
Arthropod Initiative 98. Having now been underway for just overa decade, this long-term project is monitoring change in theabundance and composition of tropical insects at seven Forest
Global Earth Observatory (ForestGEO) tropical sites 99.
Because insects are capable of rapid population increases, and areheavily influenced by the environment, insect numbers and biomass
usually fluctuate strongly over time 96, 81, 94, 95, 100. Long-term studies
are vital to understand the true level of loss 96, and all analyses of
insect datasets must take careful account of the potential pitfalls ininterpreting insect monitoring data 101. For example, this includes
ensuring that representative sets of sites are surveyed in the sameway for long enough to pick up trends, and that unusual years withparticularly high or low numbers aren’t used as a baseline or final
year in analysed trends.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 48

Even in areas with more datasets that have been analysed, such as
Europe and North America, our understanding of insect population
trends is hampered because evidence is stored in myriad places –from government reports on agricultural pests, to ecology journals,
to unpublished data on prey availability for organisms that eat
insects. A second effort, the Entomological Global Evidence Map
project, or EntoGEM, was designed to tackle this challenge and is
producing a global map of insect status and trends.
EntoGEM is using rigorous methods to identify published andunpublished datasets documenting multiyear insect population
trends 102, 103. These studies are systematically mapped by factors
like location, duration of study and taxonomic group to identify
knowledge clusters and gaps. This will enable a global communityof researchers to analyse what is known, prioritise future research
efforts, and make evidence-based policy and management
recommendations to help to conserve insects around the world.
To address global insect declines, it is clear that a multi-pronged
effort is urgently needed to identify their primary causes and inform
conservation. Robust monitoring programmes, comprehensive
synthesis and evaluation of evidence on insect population trends,
and conservation action based on the evidence that is currently
available are all needed to reduce insect declines 104, 105.

Leaf cutter ants in Costa Rica.

© naturepl.com / Bence Mate / WWF

49

CHAPTER 2

OUR WORLD IN 2020
In the last 50 years our world has been transformed by an
explosion in global trade, consumption and human population
growth, as well as an enormous move towards urbanisation.
These underlying trends are driving the unrelenting destructionof nature, with humanity now overusing our natural capitalat an unprecedented rate. Only a handful of countries retain
most of the last remaining wilderness areas. As a result ofour 21st century lifestyles our natural world is transforming
more rapidly than ever before, and climate change is further
accelerating the change.
This collection of red plastic is just a small selection of the plastic pollutantscollected by the Rame Peninsula Beach Care Group in Whitsand Bay, Cornwall.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 50

© Sam Hobson / WWF-UK

51

OUR WORLD IN 2020
Global economic growth in the last half century has changed
our world unrecognisably, driving exponential health,knowledge and standard-of-living improvements. Yet this hascome at a huge cost to nature and the stability of the Earth’s
operating systems that sustain us.
Patricia Balvanera (Universidad
Nacional Autónoma de México),
Alexander Pfaff (Duke University),
Leticia Merino (Universidad
Nacional Autónoma de México),
Zsolt Molnár (Centre for EcologicalResearch, Hungary) and Andy Purvis(Natural History Museum, UK)

Social and economic globalisation are undoubtedly the mostimportant forces shaping contemporary societies. Since 1970,
total gross domestic product (GDP) has increased four times,
the extraction of living materials from nature has tripled and, in
total, the global human population has doubled 1, 2, along with anenormous trend towards urbanisation 2.
People living in cities now account for 50% of the global
population 1, 2. In the last 50 years this number has increased more
rapidly, by 30%, in developing and least developed countries 1, 2
where many live in slums lacking resources and access to public
services 3, 2. Yet, in the same time period, child mortality
decreased overall, more sharply in least developed countries(350% decrease) 4, 1, 2; and caloric intake increased globally by
20%, even though many people in least developed countries arestill below the thresholds recommended by the World HealthOrganization 5, 1, 2.
Migration has also changed the face of our planet. More than 260
million migrants have entered other countries since 1970, mainly
developed countries 1, 2, and this migration occurs increasingly inprecarious conditions 6. The global movement of people acrossregions increased at an unprecedented pace during this period,
producing profound economic gaps.
Indeed, trade has exploded with the value of exports rising 200fold from 1970 to 2017, with the largest increases in developed
countries (1,200-fold) 7. This boom has enabled higher-income
countries to increase their consumption even though nature, within
their own boundaries, is relatively well protected; much of theadded consumption is of nature’s contributions imported fromlower-income countries, which are sometimes surrendered for little
economic growth 8, 2. Supply chains that depend heavily on nature
are often dominated by large corporations 9, 2, and when their, andothers’, amassed capital is funnelled through tax havens it can

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 52

Threats to nature and the drivers and pressures behind them
INDIRECT DRIVERS
CONSUMPTIONDEMOGRAPHICINSTITUTIONSGOVERNANCE

PRESSURES/
HUMAN ACTIVITIESDIRECT
DRIVERSBIODIVERSITYIMPACTFISHERY

HABITAT LOSSAND DEGRADATIONSPECIESOVEREXPLOITATIONECOSYSTEMSAGRICULTUREVALUES / BEHAVIOURSENERGYECONOMICTECHNOLOGY

CLIMATE CHANGE
MININGCONFLICTSEPIDEMICSPOLLUTIONINFRASTRUCTURE

FORESTRYINVASIVE SPECIESTOURISMbe difficult to regulate the financing of activities that damage theplanet’s natural systems 10.
Further, a number of economic policies currently provide incentives
to degrade nature − such as direct and indirect subsidies to use fossil
fuels, as well as those related to fisheries and agriculture 11, 2. Whileeliminating this form of incentive is not impossible, the politicalcomplexities and constraints are vast 8, 2. However, increasingly, somepolicies offer incentives to reflect the value of nature’s contributions
within individual behaviours, as do some private incentives, for example
through certified supply chains 12, 13, 2. Nations also create protected areas,
including different types in recognition that empowering local interests
in conservation is critical 14, 2.

Figure 10: Threats tonature and the drivers
and pressures behindthemValues underpin changes
in societies, which lead to
the way human activities
are undertaken defining
the direct drivers onnature. Habitat loss anddegradation is the major
direct driver on land andoverexploitation the major
one in the oceans 15.

53© Global Warming Images / WWF

Colour dyes outside a shop in
Kathmandu, Nepal.

These patterns of production, consumption, finance andgovernance, alongside population, migration and urbanisation
demographics, are indirect drivers of biodiversity loss as they
underlie land-use change and habitat loss, the overexploitationof natural resources, pollution, the spread of invasive species andclimate change – the direct drivers of the destruction of terrestrial,
freshwater and marine ecosystems 2.
Indeed, one-third of the terrestrial land surface is now used for
cropping or animal husbandry, while of the total amount of waterthat people withdraw from available freshwater resources, 75% isused for crops or livestock 15.
In marine ecosystems, the direct exploitation of organisms, mainly
in fishing, has expanded geographically and into deeper waters, andnow covers over half the surface of the oceans 16, 2. With shipping
accounting for 90% of world trade 17 to destinations all over the
globe, our oceans are also a conduit for the spread of invasive
alien species that often ‘hitchhike’ to new places – for instance inballast water, as fouling organisms attached to the hulls of ships 18,

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 54

or in packing materials, living plants or soils 19. The rate of new
introductions of invasive species has increased steeply since 1950,
and a recent study found that 37% of all recorded alien species
were introduced between 1970 and 2014 20. In parallel, the impactsof these introductions on biodiversity and human livelihoods are
increasing worldwide 21.

30
20
10
0
1970

1980

1990

2000

2010

7
6
5
4
3
2
1
1980

1990

2000

2010

20
15
10

2017

8

0
1970

25

2017

5
0
1970

1980

1990

2000

2010

2017

C. protection of key biodiversity areas
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
1970

1990

2000

2010

2018

2000

2010

2017

250

7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
1970

1980

F. child mortality rate

E. urban population
8
deaths / 1,000 live births

total million tonnes / year40

D. total population
number of people (billion)

B. extraction of living biomass
30

average % of key biodiversity areas
covered by protected areas

A. gross domestic product (GDP) per person50% of the total country population
living in urban areas

GDP per person x 1,000 (US$ 2010)

Climate change is accelerating, leading to the increased frequency
and intensity of extreme weather events and sea level rise 22, putting
further pressure on ecosystems and biodiversity.

1980

1990

2000

2010

2017

Figure 11: Development pathways since 1970 have featured unequal
benefits and burdens that differ across countries
The lowest increases in GDP have occurred in the currently least developed countries(a), while increased consumption in more developed countries has increased
extraction of living materials from nature that largely come from developing
countries (b) and protection of key biodiversity areas has been highest in developed
countries (c). Total human population has increased more rapidly in developing
countries (d) while urban population is largest in developed countries and increasing
fastest in least developed countries (e). Child mortality has sharply decreased
globally, though challenges remain for least developed countries (f). In all thesegraphs, countries are classified according to the UN World Economic Situation and
Prospects 25. Sources: Modified from World Bank (2018) 27, IPBES (2019) 26.

200
150
100
50
0
1970

1980

1990

Key
Developed economies
Developing economies
Least developed economies
World

55

HUMANITY NOW OVERSPENDS ITSBIOLOGICAL BUDGET EVERY YEAR
Since 1970, our Ecological Footprint has exceeded the Earth’s
rate of regeneration. This overshoot erodes the planet’s healthand, with it, humanity’s prospects.
Mathis Wackernagel, David Lin,
Alessandro Galli and Laurel Hanscom(Global Footprint Network)

Biocapacity, the ability of our planet’s ecosystems to regenerate, isthe underlying currency of all living systems on Earth. Everything
depends on it. Ecological Footprint accounting measures boththe biocapacity available as well as the demand people put on it
through all of our activities: from food and fibre production to theabsorption of excess carbon emissions 23-29.
This ecological balance sheet allows us to contrast biocapacitywith all the human demands that compete for biologically
productive areas 26-29. The common measurement unit is global
hectares: biologically productive hectares with world average
productivity 23, 30, 28, 29. Thanks to this common measurement unit,
countries, regions, cities, individuals and products can be comparedacross the world and over time 23, 25, 29.
Through changes in technology and land management practices,global biocapacity has increased by about 28% in the past
60 years 30, 31; however this may be an overestimate because the
UN statistics used undercount losses such as soil erosion,
groundwater depletion and deforestation. Still, this increase has
not kept pace with growth in aggregate consumption: humanity’s
Ecological Footprint, also estimated from UN statistics, has
increased by about 173% over the same time period 25, 30, 29, 31 andnow exceeds the planet’s biocapacity by 56%.
This means that the human enterprise currently demands 1.56
times more than the amount that Earth can regenerate 31. It is likeliving off 1.56 Earths. As with the 2008 economic crash, this year’s
lockdowns due to COVID-19 have reduced humanity’s demandby nearly 10% 31. However, since this reduction was not caused bystructural change the gains are unlikely to last, and may even delay
action on climate change and biodiversity loss 32, 33.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 56

Billions of global hectares (gha)25

Figure 12: Humanity’s
Ecological Footprint against
Earth’s biocapacity in global
hectares, 1961-2020
Global overshoot, starting in theearly 1970s, has increased since.
The COVID-19 related footprint
contraction - in lighter colours
from 2016 onwards - is an
estimate 30, 31.

20

15

10

5

0
1961

1970

1980

1990

2000

2010

2016 2020

Key
Carbon footprint 34 for absorbing emissions from fossil fuel burning and cement production
Built-up land footprint for accommodating roads and buildings
Fishing grounds footprint for wild and farmed seafood from oceans and freshwater
Forest product footprint for fuel wood, pulp and timber
Grazing land footprint for meat, dairy, leather and wool
Cropland footprint for food, fibre, oil and feed crops, including rubber
World biocapacity

17%

19%

29%

5%

14%

60%
15%

10%

25%

2%

3%

Humanity’s Ecological Footprintby activities

Humanity’s Ecological Footprint
by land use

Key

Key
Food

Cropland footprint

Housing

Grazing land footprint

Personal transportation

Forest product footprint

Goods

Fishing grounds footprint

Services

Built-up land footprint

Figure 13: Humanity’s
Ecological Footprint by land
use and by activities
The Ecological Footprint
measures how much demand
human consumption places on
the biosphere and compares it towhat ecosystems can renew. In
2020, the world average Footprint
amounts to 2.5 global hectares
per person, compared to 1.6
global hectares of biocapacity.
It can be broken down by area
categories (outer circle) or, using
Multi-Regional Input-Output
Assessments, by activity fields(inner circle) 35, 30, 29, 36.

Carbon footprint

57

Consumption around the world
Both human demand and natural resources
are unevenly distributed across the Earth. The
pattern of human consumption of these resources
differs from resource availability, since resources

Figure 14: Global map of
the Ecological Footprint ofconsumption per person in 2016
The Ecological Footprint per person isa function of both total population andrates of consumption within a country.
A country’s consumption includes the
Ecological Footprint it produces, plus
imports from other countries, minus
exports 31.
Key> 5 gha/person
3.5 - 5 gha/person
2 - 3.5 gha/person
1.6 - 2 gha/person< 1.6 gha/person
Insufficient data

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 58

are not consumed at the point of extraction. The
Ecological Footprint per person, across countries,
provides insights into countries’ resource
performance, risks and opportunities 37, 38, 29.

Varying levels of Ecological Footprint are due todifferent lifestyles and consumption patterns,
including the quantity of food, goods and services
residents consume, the natural resources theyuse, and the carbon dioxide emitted to provide
these goods and services.

59THE TRUE COST OF FOOD
We cannot feed the world without agriculture yet where andhow we produce food is one of the biggest human-caused
threats to biodiversity and our ecosystems. This makes thetransformation of our global food system more important
than ever.
Sarah Doornbos andNatasja Oerlemans(WWF)

Today, most of the world’s ecosystems are influenced by humans
and any landscape is likely to have a mosaic of land uses along aspectrum of intensity, from relatively undisturbed, native habitat at
the one end to cities and industrial agricultural production systems,with little biodiversity, at the other. Agri-food production systems– that is, where and how we produce food – play a key role as amajor land use and are also now widely acknowledged as one of thelargest threats to biodiversity and ecosystems 39, 15, 40.
Obvious as it may seem, feeding a growing and increasingly affluent
global population is the primary goal of our food system, and wecannot feed the world without agriculture. Yet agriculture is theprimary force behind the transgression of the Planetary Boundaries
for nitrogen, phosphorus, climate change, biosphere integrity, landsystem change and freshwater use 41, 101, 102. Many of these issues areinterlinked, aggravating the challenge. Agriculture is a significant
driver of climate change, and climate change, in turn, adds further
stress to land systems, worsening existing risks – for example ofland degradation and biodiversity loss 15, 40. Mitigating the negative
impacts of agriculture on nature and biodiversity is therefore more
important than ever.
At the same time, the potential of agricultural systems to provide
habitats, and vegetation corridors for species to move between
these habitats, enhancing rather than eroding ecosystemservices and landscape resilience, has started to become more
recognised 42-44, 100. Some agricultural systems and specificcomponents within them – from riparian corridors, hedges,
woodland patches and clearings in forests, to waterways, ponds orother biodiversity-friendly features of the production environment– can provide habitat for specific species 45, 44.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 60

At a landscape scale, crop and livestock farming can add diversity
to the ‘mosaic’ of habitat types present, and such diversified
agricultural landscapes can support much more biodiversity than
was initially thought 44. Agricultural systems can also be managed
in such a way that they facilitate, rather than constrain, species
dispersal through corridors and along migratory routes, which isespecially important considering climate change 46, 47.
Biodiversity is also of crucial importance for food production
itself. It has been amply documented that biodiversity underpins
key ecosystem functions that help determine food production andsecurity 48. A high degree of diversity among species, varieties,
breeds, populations and ecosystems can help to create andmaintain healthy soils, pollinate plants, purify water, provide
protection against extreme weather events, or any of a range ofother vital services 49, 48, 39.

Agriculture is responsible for
80% of global deforestation

80%

GLOBAL
DEFORESTATION

Food systems release
29% of global GHGs

29%

Figure 15: The environmental
impacts of food production
Sources: Adapted from CBD (2014) 98,
GSDR (2019) 99 and ELD Initiative(2015) 103.

GLOBAL GHGs

Drivers linked to food production cause
70% of terrestrial biodiversity loss

Agriculture accounts for
70% of freshwater use

70%

FRESHWATER
USE

Drivers linked to food production cause
50% of freshwater biodiversity loss

50%

FRESHWATERBIODIVERSITY LOSS70%

TERRESTRIAL
BIODIVERSITY LOSS

52% of agricultural production
land is degraded

52%

DEGRADED
AGRICULTURAL LAND

61

WASTE NOT, WANT NOT: WHY NO FOODSHOULD BE LEFT BEHIND
Globally, more than 820 million people face hunger or foodinsecurity, while staggering quantities of food loss and waste
result in US$1 trillion in economic costs, around US$700
billion in environmental costs and around US$900 billion
in social costs 104, 105.
Pete Pearson andAmanda Stone(WWF)

Reducing food loss and waste represents a critical opportunity
to relieve environmental pressure on our planet. An estimated
one-third of the food produced for human consumption is lost or
wasted globally – this amounts to about 1.3 billion tonnes every
year 52. This means that around one-quarter of the calories theworld produces are never eaten: they’re spoiled or spilled in supply
chains, or are wasted by retailers, restaurants and consumers 53.
In a multiplier effect, when food loss and waste occurs along the
supply chain, all the land, water, energy, seeds, fertiliser, labour,
capital and other resources that went into its production also go
to waste.
Food loss and waste also contributes to climate change. It is
responsible for at least 6% of total global greenhouse gas
emissions 54, three times more than the global emissions fromaviation 55, 56. Almost a quarter - 24% - of all emissions from the foodsector comes from food that is lost in supply chains or wasted
by consumers 57, 54.

Figure 16: Food Loss Index from post-harvest to distribution byregion (2016) 60
Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goal 12 aims to “ensure sustainableconsumption and production patterns”. It includes target 12.3: “by 2030, halve
the per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer level, and reduce foodlosses along production and supply chains including post-harvest losses.” Progress
towards this goal will be measured by two separate indices – the Food Loss Index,
led by FAO; and the Food Waste Index, led by UN Environment. This figure shows
the Food Loss Index which focuses on food losses that occur from production up
to (but not including) the retail level in each region. The index is calculated bymeasuring the changes in percentage losses for a basket of 10 main commodities
in each country, compared to a base period 60, 61.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 62

Almost two-thirds of this (15% of food emissions) comes fromlosses across the supply chain, resulting from poor storage andhandling techniques, a lack of refrigeration, or spoilage in transportand processing. The other 9% comes from food thrown away byretailers and consumers 57.
The COVID-19 crisis has exposed many weaknesses in our global
food system 58, 59. One is the complexity of supply chains, including
the general lack of data transparency and real-time market
information that means food systems are unable to quickly adapt
and shift food distribution. Within weeks of the COVID-19 crisis
beginning, traditional food outlets and markets were shuttered,leaving distribution channels ill-prepared to fully utilise food storesand establish new channels for farmers, further exacerbating
food waste.
In general, waste happens for a variety of reasons at different points
along the supply chain. In developing or emerging markets, foodis most often lost post-harvest due to a lack of infrastructure, suchas storage or cold chain logistics, or ready access to markets. In
developed economies like the US or EU, food is more often wasted
further along the supply chain, in consumer-facing industries suchas hospitality, food service, grocery retail, restaurants, and in homes.
However, there is unmeasured consumer waste in developing
countries, and there is unmeasured in-field and post-harvest loss indeveloped countries. Because loss and waste quantification is stilllargely only estimated, measurement must be prioritised acrossglobal value chains if we are to improve (Figure 16).
Like climate change, food loss and waste can be characterised asa multiplier of environmental, social and economic impacts. By
setting national food-waste targets and policies and introducing
supply chain and operational practices to encourage widespreadchange, we can ease pressure on land and natural habitats,ensuring that every calorie counts.

Central Asia and Southern Asia
Northern America and Europe
Sub-Saharan Africa
World
Latin America and the CaribbeanWestern Asia and Northern Africa
Oceania excluding Australia and New Zealand
Eastern Asia and South-eastern Asia
Australia and New Zealand

0

5
10
15
20
Percentage of food lost from post-harvest to distribution in 2016

25

63

BIODIVERSITY’S CATASTROPHICCOLLAPSE ON LAND
Land-use change is currently the most important directdriver of biodiversity loss on land, with climate change,
overexploitation, pollution and invasive species not far
behind.
Adrienne Etard,
Jessica J. Williams &Tim Newbold(University College London)

Human activities are altering natural habitats and reshaping life on
Earth’s surface. Terrestrial biodiversity is mainly impacted by five
direct drivers: land-use change, climate change, overexploitation,
pollution and the introduction of invasive species 62.
These drivers, alone and in combination, have had dramatic
impacts on terrestrial biota. The latest Living Planet Index showsthat vertebrate populations have declined by 68%, on average,
since 1970 (Chapter 1). Impacts vary in different parts of theworld, with the hyper-diverse tropical areas – that are critical to
global biodiversity conservation – being particularly sensitive toanthropogenic threats 63.
Despite the increasing impact of a changing climate, three-quartersof all the plant and vertebrate species that have gone extinct since
the year 1500 were harmed by overexploitation and/or agriculturalactivity (with invasive species also a predominant threat) 64, 62.
Indeed, about one-third of the total land surface is used for
agricultural purposes. Energy, transportation and housing also
contribute to land conversion; built-up areas cover about 1% of
the total land surface. The land surface covered by agriculturaland built-up areas nearly doubled between 1900 and 2016 65.
Land-use change has profound impacts on local biodiversity.
When humans modify habitats, many species can’t persist in the
new conditions. Fragmented habitats, comprising remnant habitat
patches surrounded by human-disturbed land, may not be large
enough to sustain viable populations. Remaining species are thoseable to cope in altered conditions; as such, global land-use change
favours ecological generalists at the expense of rare andspecialist species 66-68.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 64

Species richness – that is, the number of species occurring inan ecological community, landscape or region – is estimatedto decrease by a global average of 13.6% in human-modified
habitats compared to intact habitats 69, although the effects are
geographically uneven. Mediterranean and tropical biodiversity has
been found to be the most sensitive to land-use change 70. Landuse change also has indirect negative effects on biodiversity, forexample through roadkills and human-wildlife conflicts.
Looking ahead to 2050, global land-use model projections show
that, without changes in diet, food production and food loss andwaste, agricultural areas will have to expand in order to meetincreased food demand. Future projections indicate that, by 2050,
cropland areas may have to be 10 to 25% larger than in 2005 71.
Associated biodiversity losses may have negative effects on thedelivery of ecosystem services, such as pollination and pest control,a situation compounded by the changing climate 72. This makesreconciling global food production with biodiversity conservation
one of the major challenges of the 21st century.

INFRASTRUCTURE 1%
1%

Global ice-free land surface (130 Mkm2)

IRRIGATED CROPLAND 2%

Figure 17: Global land use incirca 2015
The bar chart depicts shares ofdifferent uses of the global ice-free landarea for approximately the year 2015.
Bars are ordered along a gradient ofdecreasing land-use intensity from left
to right. Each bar represents a broadland cover category; the numbers
on top are the total percentage of theice-free area covered, with uncertainty
ranges in brackets. Intensive pastureis defined as having a livestock density
greater than 100 animals/km². The
area of ‘forest managed for timberand other uses’ was calculated as total
forest area minus ‘primary/intact’
forest area.. Adapted from the IPCC
Land Special Report on Land –Summary for Policy Makers (2019) 73

12%(12-14%)

NON-IRRIGATED CROPLAND 10%
INTENSIVE PASTURE 2%
37%(30-47%)

USED SAVANNAHS AND SHRUBLANDS 16%

EXTENSIVE PASTURE 19%

PLANTATION FORESTS 2%
22%(16-23%)

FORESTS MANAGED FOR TIMBER AND OTHER USES 20%

28%(24-31%)

UNFORESTEDECOSYSTEMS WITHMINIMAL HUMAN
USE 7%FORESTS (INTACT OR PRIMARY)WITH MINIMAL HUMAN USE 9%

OTHER LAND (BARREN, ROCK) 12%65

MAPPING THE LAST WILDERNESSAREAS ON EARTH
Advances in satellite technology allow us to visualise how the
Earth is changing in real time. Human footprint mapping
then shows where we are and aren’t impacting land on
Earth. The latest map reveals that just a handful of countries– Russia, Canada, Brazil and Australia – contain most of
the places without a human footprint, the last remaining
terrestrial wilderness areas on our planet 74.
James Watson (University of
Queensland and WCS),
Brooke Williams (Universityof Queensland) andOscar Venter (University ofNorthern British Columbia)

In the last two decades increasingly powerful computing, whichaims to track human pressure across Earth using a network ofsatellites combined with bottom-up census and crowd-sourced
data 75, allows us to quantify and locate even sparse humansettlements, low-intensity agricultural farming and road
construction, and other forms of human pressure 76, 74.
The new field of ‘cumulative human pressure mapping’ has helped
to integrate this data to provide a new view of the terrestrial
biosphere and humanity’s role in shaping its patterns and processes(Figure 18). The latest human footprint map clearly shows thespatial extent of humanity’s environmental footprint, with 58% of
the land’s surface under intense human pressure (Figure 19). Since
2000, 1.9 million km2, an area the size of Mexico of ecologicallyintact land – that is, ecosystems that remain free from significant
direct human pressure – has been lost, with most losses occurring
within the world’s tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannahand shrubland ecosystems, and the rainforests of Southeast Asia. It
also illustrates that only 25% of terrestrial Earth can be considered‘wilderness’ (i.e. areas having no human footprint score), and thatmost of this is contained in just a small number of nations – Russia,
Canada, Brazil and Australia.

Polar regions represent some of Earth’s lastwilderness areas: Ilulissat, Greenland.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 66

© Elisabeth Kruger / WWF-US

67

This most recent assessment shows that Earth’s remaining
ecologically intact places are in the throes of the same extinction
crisis as is being faced by species. These places are disappearing infront of our eyes. Like species extinction, the erosion of these intact
ecosystems is essentially irreversible and has profound impacts
on species’, and our own, ability to adapt to a rapidly changing
climate 77.

Figure 18:
The broad methodological frameworkused to create a map of cumulative
human pressure – adapted from
Watson and Venter (2019) 75

population density

croplandrailways and roads
HIGH

night-time lights

navigable waterways

LOW

built environments
pasture land

1.
human
1.Identyfie
Identifycore
corepressures
human pressuresdevelopdata on
2.2. Acquire
Acquireor ordevelopindividual
humanpressures
data onindividual
human pressures

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 68

pressure
3.3. Assign
Assignrelative
relativescoresto individualpressurespressurescorestoindividual pressurepressures to
4.4. OOverlay
verlayindividual
individual
createHuman Footprint
maps
pressuresto create
Human Footprint maps

Once it has been eroded, an intact ecosystem and its many
values can never be fully restored 78. Our enhanced ability to use
technology to map and monitor the land needs to go hand in handwith commitments to prevent Earth’s intact ecosystems fromdisappearing completely, allowing them to fulfil their critical role inabating both the biodiversity and climate crises.

Key
DamagedIntactWilderness

High: 50

High: 1

High: 0

Low: 4

Low: 4

Low: 1Figure 19:
The proportion of each terrestrial biome (excluding
Antarctica) considered wilderness (dark green, humanfootprint value of <1), intact (light green, human footprint
value of <4), or highly modified by humanity (red, humanfootprint value of > or equal to 4) 74.

69

OUR OCEAN IS IN ‘HOT WATER’
Overfishing, pollution and coastal development, among otherpressures, have impacted the entire ocean, from shallow
waters to the deep sea, and climate change will continue
to cause a growing spectrum of effects across marine
ecosystems.
Derek P. Tittensor(Dalhousie University)

Nowhere in the ocean is entirely unaffected by humans 79: only 13%
of its area is considered to be wilderness 80, waste and marine litterare found even in deep ocean trenches 81, and human pressures
are increasing over time 82. The negative effects of these impacts
threaten the goods and services – such as food provision, climate
regulation, carbon storage and coastal protection – that marine
ecosystems provide to human society, and upon which we
all depend.
The UN FAO estimates that fish consumption (including
freshwater) provides more than 3.3 billion people with at least
20% of their animal protein intake, and that the fisheries andaquaculture sectors provide direct employment for 59.5 million
people 83. Nearly 200 million people depend on coral reefs to help
protect them from storm surges and waves 84.
Fishing for human consumption is considered to have thegreatest impact on ocean biodiversity 2, causing one in three fishstocks assessed to be considered overfished 85 and leading to theunintended bycatch of species such as sharks, seabirds and turtles 86.
In addition to fishing, numerous other impacts – such as pollution,
including plastic pollution, and coastal development – affect ouroceans through a variety of mechanisms (Figure 20). Climatechange will increasingly interact with these stressors. It has alreadyaltered marine ecosystems 87), and climate impacts will only
continue to grow in future. These will include causing species toshift their ranges as the ocean warms 88, coral bleaching 89 and the
additional challenges posed by ocean acidification for these andother calcifying organisms, an increase in extreme weather events,changes in interactions between species, and reduced productivity
and animal biomass 90.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 70

As climate change continues, it will present serious challenges
to management and conservation approaches 91. For example, it
may alter where large ocean fauna (like whales) feed, potentiallybringing them into conflict with hazards like shipping 92; cause
range shifts that can move fish stocks across national boundaries
and outpace regulations and governance 93; affect nutrient cycles
and productivity 94; increase the risk of species invasions 95; andchange the potential for marine aquaculture production 96.

Dead Southern bluefin tuna(Thunnus maccoyii) caught in a tunapen, Port Lincoln, South Australia.

© naturepl.com / David Fleetham / WWF

71

DRIVER OF CHANGE
Fishing
Climate change
Land-based pollution
Ocean-based pollution
Coastal development
Invasive alien species
Offshore infrastructure

POTENTIAL NEGATIVE IMPACTS
Overexploitation, bycatch of non-target species, seafloor
habitat destruction from seafloor trawling, illegal,
unregulated, and unreported (IUU) fishing, gathering oforganisms for the aquarium trade.
Warming waters, ocean acidification, increased oxygen
minimum zones, more frequent extreme events, change inocean currents.

Nutrient run-off, contaminants such as heavy metals, microand macro-plastics.

Waste disposal, fuel leaks and dumping from ships, oil spills
from offshore platforms, noise pollution.

Destruction of habitats, increased pressure on local
shorelines, increased pollution and waste.

Invasive species accidentally (e.g. through ballast water) or
deliberately introduced; more climate-driven invasions likely.

Physical disturbance of the seafloor, creation of habitat
structure.

Shipping
Vessel strikes, pollution from dumping.

Mariculture (aquaculture of marine organisms)

Physical presence of aquaculture facilities, pollution.

Deep-sea mining
Seafloor destruction, settlement plumes on seabed,potential for leakages and chemical spills, noise pollution.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 72

EXAMPLES OF ECOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES
Reduced population sizes, ecosystem restructuring and trophic cascades,
reductions in body size, local and commercial extinction of species, ‘ghostfishing’ due to lost or dumped fishing gear.
Reef die-off through bleaching, species moving away from warming waters,changes in ecological interactions and metabolism, changes in interactions
with human activities (e.g. fishing, vessel strikes) as organisms alter theirlocation and space use, changes in ocean circulation patterns and productivity,changes in disease incidence and the timing of biological processes.
Algal blooms and fish kills, accumulation of toxins up the food web, ingestionof and entanglement in plastic and other debris.

Figure 20:
Anthropogenic drivers of change
in marine ecosystems, types ofnegative impact that can arise
from them, and examples ofpotential ecological consequences.
It is important to recognise thatnegative impacts can be mitigatedand must be weighed against
societal benefits in some cases.
For deep-sea mining, impacts areprojected since it is not yet appliedat scale. Note that impacts forindividual drivers can vary fromvery local to global scales. Sourced
from IPBES (2019) 2 and references
therein.

Toxic impacts on marine organismal physiology, noise pollution impacts on
marine animal behaviour.

Reduction in area of habitats such as mangroves and seagrasses, limits theability of coastal habitats and organisms to shift, and migrate, to adapt toclimate change.

Invasive species can outcompete native species, disrupt ecosystems andcause local or global extinctions.

Local seafloor habitat destruction, provision of structures for organisms tocolonise and aggregate around.

Impacts on population sizes of endangered marine mammals hit by vessels,
physiological and physical impacts of pollution.

Potential for nutrient build-up and algal blooms, disease, antibiotic use,
escape of captive organisms and impacts on local ecosystem, indirect impact
of capture fisheries to source fishmeal as foodstuff.

Destruction of physical habitat (e.g. cold-water corals) and benthic layer,
potential smothering of organisms by settlement plumes.

73

CHAPTER 3

PEOPLE AND NATURE ARE
INTERTWINED
Nature is essential for human existence and a good qualityof life, providing and sustaining the air, freshwater and soils
on which humanity depends. While more food, energy andmaterials than ever before are being supplied to people in mostparts of the world, this is increasingly coming at the expenseof nature’s ability to provide them in the future. People’s
perceptions of environmental risk are changing and is clearthat biodiversity conservation is a non-negotiable, strategic
investment for our health, our wellbeing and our daily lives.
Children crossing a living bridge on their way to school, Meghalaya region, India.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 74

© Amos Chapple

75

GLOBAL CHANGE IS ALREADY IMPACTING
OUR HEALTH, WEALTH AND SECURITY
Recently, a series of catastrophic events have shaken theworld’s environmental conscience, showing that biodiversity
conservation is more than an ethical commitment forhumanity: it is a non-negotiable and strategic investment topreserve our health, wealth and security.
Moreno Di Marco(Sapienza University of Rome)

The human enterprise relies fundamentally on goods and services
that are contributed and regulated by biodiversity, including
food, clean water, climate mitigation and cultural connections 1.
Nevertheless, our impact on biodiversity has been pervasive sinceprehistoric times, and environmental degradation has rapidly
accelerated in recent decades 2.
In 2019, Africa had its largest outbreak of desert locusts in decades.
It originated in the southern Arabian Peninsula, where climatechange caused two cyclones with unusually heavy rainfall in 2018 3.
These conditions created perfect breeding grounds for the locusts,
which migrated to East Africa and South Asia causing widespreadcrop devastation. Also in 2019, an exceptionally hot and longheatwave led to extreme droughts in India and Pakistan, forcing
tens of thousands to abandon their homes and causing an as-yetunknown death toll 4.

Image from the Our Planet series, © Ryan Atkinson / Silverback / Netflix

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 76

Just a few months later, Australia was impacted by one of themost intense bushfire seasons ever recorded, with over 10 million
hectares, an area the size of Iceland, burnt and more than 10
million people exposed to thick smoke 5. This crisis was exacerbatedby unusually low rainfall and record high temperatures; as well
as excessive logging that has created drier and more flammable
understorey vegetation 6.
More globally, 2020 will be remembered in the history books
for something else, as the outbreak of a previously unknown
coronavirus generated a pandemic that held the world hostage.
In just its first six months, hundreds of thousands of people died,millions were infected, and society was confronted with a longlasting economic impact in the order of trillions of US dollars.
Although the origins of COVID-19 remain uncertain, 60% of
emerging infectious diseases come from animals, and nearly
three-quarters of these from wild animals 8, 23. The emergence of
these diseases correlates with high human population density andhigh wildlife diversity, and is driven by anthropogenic changes
such as deforestation and the expansion of agricultural land, theintensification of livestock production, and the increased harvestingof wildlife 8, 9. This was the case for Nipah in Malaysia in 1998,
SARS in China in 2003, Ebola in West Africa in 2013-16, and manyothers 10. Mitigating the underlying drivers of disease emergencerisk will therefore require consideration of multiple dimensionsof socio-economic development targeting a diverse range ofsocietal issues 11.
What is now clear is that the social and economic consequencesof environmental degradation are catastrophic, and safeguarding
human health, wealth and security is intrinsically linked tosafeguarding environmental health.

Pristine Asian rainforest
alongside an oil palm plantation.

77

Figure 21:
Global trends from 1970
to the present of the 18
categories of Nature’sContributions to People:
14 of the 18 categories
analysed have declined
since 1970 13, 99. (Figure
adapted from Díaz, S.
et al. (2019) 99, IPBES(2019) 13)

Key

REGULATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROCESSESNature is essential for human existence and a goodquality of life, providing and sustaining the air,freshwater and soils on which humanity depends. It
also regulates the climate, provides pollination andpest control, and reduces the impact of natural hazards.
While more food, energy and materials than everbefore are being supplied to people in most parts of
the world, this is increasingly coming at the expenseof nature’s ability to provide them in the future, withthe overexploitation of plants and animals frequently
undermining nature’s many other contributions 13, 99.
Within the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform
on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)
conceptual framework, these contributions are referred
to as ‘Nature’s Contributions to People’ 13, 99. This table
was included in the IPBES Summary for Policymakers
and it presents the global trends for some of thesecontributions from 1970 to the present day: we explore
these concepts in more detail in the final section ofthis chapter.

Global trends
Decrease

Increase

Levels of certainty
Well establishedEstablished but incomplete
Unresolved

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 78

NON-MATERIAL

Berta Martin-Lopez(Leuphana University,
Lüneburg) and
Sandra Díaz (CONICET
and Córdoba National
University, Argentina
and IPBES Global
Assessment Co-Chair)

MATERIALS AND ASSISTANCE

STRETCHING OUR SAFETY NETALMOST TO BREAKING POINTNATURE’S CONTRIBUTION TO PEOPLE
HABITAT CREATION AND MAINTENANCE

50-YEAR GLOBAL TREND

SELECTED INDICATOR• Extent of suitable habitat• Biodiversity intactness

POLLINATION AND DISPERSAL OF SEEDSAND OTHER PROPAGULES• Pollinator diversity

REGULATION OF AIR QUALITY• Retention and prevented emissions of air pollutants byecosystems

REGULATION OF CLIMATE• Prevented emissions and uptake of greenhouse gases by
ecosystems

REGULATION OF OCEAN ACIDIFICATION• Capacity to sequester carbon by marine and terrestrial
environments

REGULATION OF FRESHWATER QUANTITY,
LOCATION AND TIMING• Ecosystem impact on air-surface-ground water partitioning

REGULATION OF FRESHWATER AND
COASTAL WATER QUALITY• Extent of ecosystems that filter or add constituent
components to water

FORMATION, PROTECTION AND DECONTAMINATIONOF SOILS AND SEDIMENTS• Soil organic carbon

REGULATION OF HAZARDS AND
EXTREME EVENTS• Ability of ecosystems to absorb and buffer hazards

REGULATION OF DETRIMENTAL ORGANISMS
AND BIOLOGICAL PROCESSESENERGY
FOOD AND FEED
MATERIALS AND ASSISTANCE
MEDICINAL, BIOCHEMICAL AND
GENETIC RESOURCESLEARNING AND INSPIRATION• Extent of natural habitat in agricultural areas• Extent of natural habitat in agricultural areas• Diversity of competent hosts of vector-borne diseases• Extent of agricultural land – potential land for bioenergy
production• Extent of forested land
• Extent of agricultural land – potential land for food and feed
production• Abundance of marine fish stocks• Extent of agricultural land – potential land for material
production• Extent of forested land
• Fraction of species locally known and used medicinally• Phylogenetic diversity• Number of people in close proximity to nature• Diversity of life from which to learn

PHYSICAL AND
PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPERIENCES• Area of natural and traditional landscapes and seascapes

SUPPORTING IDENTITIES• Stability of land use and land cover

MAINTENANCE OF OPTIONS• Species’ survival probability• Phylogenetic diversity

79Intrinsically interlinked:
healthy planet, healthy people
The past century has seen extraordinary gains in human healthand well-being. This is rightly celebrated, but it has been partiallyachieved through the exploitation and alteration of the world’s
natural systems, which threatens to undo these successes.
Thomas Pienkowski
and Sarah Whitmee(University of Oxford)

There have been tremendous gains in human health in the past
50 years. For instance, child mortality among under-5s has halved
since 1990 15, the share of the world’s population living on lessthan $1.90 a day fell by two-thirds over the same period 16, and life
expectancy at birth is around 15 years higher today than it was
50 years ago 17.
These trends are positive, but they have in part been achieved
through the exploitation and alteration of the world’s natural
systems. Current levels of environmental change undermine thecapacity of these natural systems to continue to benefit humanity,
and also create new threats to health 18. Nature’s contributions tohealth are diverse, from traditional medicines and pharmaceuticals
derived from plants to water filtration by wetlands (see ouraccompanying “deep dive” into freshwater) 19, 20. As such, the lossof nature threatens to slow and, in some cases, reverse these
positive health and well-being trends.
In recognition of this, in 2015 the Rockefeller Foundation–Lancet
Commission introduced the concept of ‘Planetary Health’, defining
it as “the health of human civilization and the state of the natural
systems on which it depends”, recognising that nature and humanwell-being are deeply linked 21.
An example of this is the emergence of zoonotic diseases driven,in part, by environmental degradation 22. The global coronavirus
pandemic has caused incredible human suffering and social andeconomic upheaval. Although the origins of COVID-19 remain
uncertain, 60% of emerging infectious diseases come from animals,
and nearly three-quarters of these from wild animals 8, 23.

A mothers’ meeting is led by a community health volunteer in Bardia, Nepal.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 80

© James Morgan / WWF-US

81

These diseases can spill over into humans in a variety of ways,
sometimes through direct contact with wild animals, but often
through intermediary hosts such as domestic animals 24.
The rate of infectious disease emergence has drastically increased
over the last 80 years 8, with one study suggesting that diseases
originating in animals cause 2.5 billion cases of illness, and nearly
3 million deaths, each year 25. Given that many of these diseases
come from wildlife, preventing the next pandemic might depend onunderstanding how humanity’s relationship with nature contributes
to the emergence of these diseases.
We do know that nearly half of all new emerging infectious
diseases from animals are linked to land-use change, agriculturalintensification and the food industry 26. Agricultural and industrial
expansion into natural areas often disrupts ecological systems that
regulate pathogenic risk, particularly in the biodiverse tropics 27, 28.
This can lead to close contact between wildlife, livestock and people,
increasing the chance that a disease will spill over into humans 29.
There are also concerning examples of diseases emerging
through the use and trade of wildlife, such as HIV/AIDS linked tochimpanzee consumption, SARS connected to markets containing
wildlife, and Ebola linked to the hunting of great apes 30-32. These
examples illustrate the complex links and trade-offs between
nature, health and other aspects of human well-being. For instance,
terrestrial wild meats make vital contributions to the health andlivelihoods of millions of people globally 33, 34.
Diseases like COVID-19, originating from animals, are one of themany connections between the health of people and the planet.
Other kinds of environmental change, such as climate change andbiodiversity loss, also pose serious threats to human health in
the near future. However, there are solutions within reach which
can benefit both people and the planet. How humanity chooses torecover from the COVID-19 pandemic, and how it addresses thelooming threats from global environmental change, will influence
the health of generations to come.

Rosy periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus) is valued for medicinal uses especiallyin the treatment of juvenile leukemia and other cancers, Madagascar.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 82

© Olivier Langrand / WWF83

Nature underpins human healthand well-being
The links between BIODIVERSITY and HEALTH are diverse,
from traditional medicines and pharmaceuticals derived
from plants to water filtration by wetlands 13, 19, 20.

HEALTH is “A state of complete physical, mental andsocial well-being and not merely the absence of diseaseor infirmity. The enjoyment of the highest attainable
standard of health is one of the fundamental rights ofevery human being without distinction of race, religion,
political belief, economic or social condition.” The World
Health Organization, WHO (1948) 107.

BIODIVERSITY is “The fruit of billions of years of evolution,
shaped by natural processes and, increasingly, by the
influence of humans. It forms the web of life of which weare an integral part and upon which we so fully depend.
It also encompasses the variety of ecosystems such as thosethat occur in deserts, forests, wetlands, mountains, lakes,
rivers, and agricultural landscapes. In each ecosystem,
living creatures, including humans, form a community,
interacting with one another and with the air, water, andsoil around them.” The Convention on Biological Diversity,
CBD (2020) 108.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 84

DISASTER RISKAGRICULTURAL
BIODIVERSITYWATER QUALITY

NUTRITION

CLIMATECHANGE

FOOD & WATERSECURITYTRADITIONALMEDICINE
MENTAL HEALTHSUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENTHEALTHOUTCOMES

AIR QUALITY

MICROBIAL
BIODIVERSITYECOSYSTEMSBIOMEDICAL/PHARMACEUTICALDISCOVERYINFECTIOUS DISEASES

Figure 22:
Reprinted figure from
“Connecting global priorities:
Biodiversity and humanhealth a state of knowledge
review,” World HealthOrganization (WHO) and
Secretariat of the Convention
on Biological Diversity(CBD),Copyright (2015) 14.

85

It’s better being green:
health and well-being in cities
A growing body of evidence confirms that it isgood for everyone’s health and well-being to beable to engage with green and natural spaces nearto home. Good access to such natural places canhelp reduce health inequalities.
Catharine Ward
Thompson(OPENspaceresearch centre,
University of
Edinburgh)

Links between access to green space and the health and wellbeing of urban residents have been recognised throughout
history and were one of the driving forces behind the urban
parks movement of the 19th century in Europe and North
America 35. However, until recently, many of the mechanisms
behind such links were poorly understood or lacked rigorous
scientific evidence. Recently, new research techniques haveprovided opportunities to study what lies behind associations
between green space and health with increasing sophistication.
This is demonstrating associations between access to green or
natural environments and a range of health outcomes, including
lower probabilities of cardiovascular disease 36, obesity 37,
diabetes 38, asthma hospitalisation 39, mental distress 40
and, ultimately, mortality 41 among adults; and lower risks ofobesity 42 and myopia 43 in children. More green space in theneighbourhood is also associated with better self-reported
health 44, 45, 43, subjective well-being 46 in adults, improved birthoutcomes 47-49, and cognitive development in children 45. Recent
epidemiological studies have revealed that access to urban
green space may have lifelong effects on health, with childhood
access to green space, for example, predicting cognitive healthand mental well-being in people aged 70 years or more 50-52.
Current evidence linking green space and health ispredominantly from the Global North. Urban green space
might also bring ecosystem disservices to some cities globally,
including fostering the spread of infectious diseases andproblematic interactions with wildlife, yet there is nonethelessan argument for urban green space as a fundamental elementof sustainable, healthy and liveable cities, including in the
Global South 53. Investing in environmental interventions, suchas extending the amount of urban green space and improving
its quality and connectedness, has the potential to offer multiple
ecosystem services while supporting better and more equitable
human health 54.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 86

Norway maple (Acer platanoides)in the Royal National City Park, Sweden.

© WWF-Sweden / Germund Sellgren

87Sowing the seeds to connect with nature
New research is beginning to show how children’s experiencesof nature have long-term effects in the ways they value, and takeaction for, nature as adults.
Riyan van den Born
(Radboud University Nijmegen)

What motivates people to act for nature?
We know that people act for nature because it has instrumental
value, that is, it improves our income or health; for moral value,
for instance its intrinsic right to exist; and because of its relational
value, for example connectedness and living a meaningful
life 55, 56. In seven European countries we studied people who werecommitted activists for nature and found that the desire to live
a meaningful life was the primary energising force of committed
action 57. Other studies have demonstrated that living a meaningful
life “is a fundamental component of human well-being” 58, andtherefore a basic human motivation.
Recognising the importance of feeling connected to nature
raises the question of how this connection is developed andcan be strengthened. Studies show that in order to establish aconnection to nature, it is first important to be in contact withnature in early childhood; and having intense, and autonomous,childhood experiences in nature is crucial as well 59. This makes
children’s access to nature of vital importance, especially sincemore and more children are growing up in urban areas where
nature experiences can be scarce. Our work confirms that intense
encounters with nature without supervision 60 are vital for building
this connectedness 61 which is a key condition for commitment to,
and action for, nature conservation in later life.

Salima Gurau picks vegetables from the gardensof the homestay her family runs in Nepal.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 88

© Karine Aigner / WWF-US

89

BIODIVERSITY IS FUNDAMENTAL TO
FOOD SECURITY
Urgent action is needed to address the loss of the biodiversitythat feeds the world.
Julie Bélanger and Dafydd Pilling(Food and Agriculture Organizationof the United Nations FAO)

Food security is considered to exist “when all people, at all
times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient,safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and foodpreferences for an active and healthy life” 62. With the number ofundernourished people in the world at about 820 million, andincreasing in recent years, and more than 2 billion people estimatednot to have regular access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food 63,
global food security is far from being achieved. Major changes areneeded if Sustainable Development Goal 2: Zero Hunger (targetingthe end of hunger and all forms of malnutrition by 2030) is to be
met. Better management of biodiversity has an important role toplay in this.
FAO’s global assessment of biodiversity for food and agriculture 64,
on which this section draws, provides an analysis of the multiple
ways in which biodiversity contributes to food security (see Figure
23 overleaf). Thousands of species of wild and domesticatedplants, animals, fungi and micro-organisms are consumed as food.
Among domesticated species, thousands of different plant varieties,
livestock breeds and aquaculture strains have been developed. All
this diversity adds to the options available to food producers andincreases the range of foods available. It allows food to be produced
in a wide variety of environments and helps provide people withdiverse and balanced diets. Millions of livelihoods are supported by
the farming or harvesting of a wide variety of food, feed, fuel andfibre-producing species.
Beyond the species that we eat, a vast range of others – as wellas whole ecosystems – are essential to food production. These
include the pollinators that enable many important crop species
to reproduce, the natural enemies that protect crops from pests
and reduce the need for harmful pesticides, the micro-organisms
and invertebrates that enrich soils, the grassland ecosystems thatprovide food for livestock, and the mangroves, coral reefs andseagrass beds that provide habitats for fish.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 90

Many ecosystems contribute in multiple ways to providing theconditions needed for food production, for example by regulatingwater flows or providing protection against storms.
Biodiversity – at genetic, species and ecosystem levels – makes
production systems and livelihoods better able to withstand shocks
and respond to environmental, social and economic changes.
Genetic diversity allows populations to adapt over time via natural
selection. In the case of domesticated species, it provides thebasis for breeding programmes aimed at increasing production or
improving the capacity of crops, trees, livestock or farmed aquaticorganisms to cope with challenges such as high temperatures or thepresence of diseases or parasites.
The potential benefits of biodiversity for food security are far frombeing fully realised. Species that are richer in micronutrients andvitamins, or better adapted to local conditions, are often underused.
Among plants for example, only nine species (sugar cane, maize,
rice, wheat, potatoes, soybeans, cassava, sugar beet and oil palm)
account for 67% of all crop production 65. There are also many ways
in which the indirect contributions of biodiversity to food security
could be increased, for example by protecting soils, or providing
habitats for pollinators or the natural enemies of pests, in andaround production systems.
Many species and ecosystems of importance to food and agriculture
are in decline, and genetic diversity within species is often
decreasing. Major threats include destructive changes in land andwater use and management, including in the food and agricultural
sector, climate change, and the overexploitation of wild species
used for food. Reversing these negative trends and addressing thesethreats will be essential to the future of global food security.
In 2019, FAO launched the first report on The State of theWorld’s Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture 64. Five years
in the making, the report was prepared under the guidance of
FAO’s Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture
through a participatory, country-driven process, engaging over
175 authors and reviewers, who based their analysis on 91 country
reports prepared by over 1,300 contributors. It details the many
benefits that biodiversity brings to food and agriculture, examines
how farmers, pastoralists, forest dwellers, fishers and fish farmers
have shaped and managed biodiversity, identifies major drivers oftrends in the status of biodiversity, and discusses trends in the useof biodiversity-friendly production practices.

91

LIVELIHOODS

FOOD SECURITY

Domesticated
TERRESTRIAL
PLANTS

DIRECT: BIODIVERSITY USED AS FOOD

Around 6000 species 71 of which 9 account for 2/3 of crop production 77
Thousands of varieties, landraces and cultivars (exact numbers unknown) 67 some 5.3 million samples are stored in gene banks 76

TERRESTRIALANIMALS
About 40 species of birds and mammals, of which 8 provide more than
95% of the human food supply from livestock 69
About 8800 breeds (distinct within-species populations) 75

AQUATIC ANIMALSAND PLANTS
Almost 700 species used in aquaculture, of which 10 account for
50% of production 74
Few recognised strains (distinct within-species populations) 74

MICRO-ORGANISMS
AND FUNGI
Thousands of species of fungi and micro-organisms essential for foodprocesses such as fermentation 64
Around 60 species of edible fungi commercially cultivated 70

INDIRECT: BIODIVERSITY THAT CREATES THE CONDI
GENES, SPECIES ANDECOSYSTEMS

Thousands of species of pollinators, soil engineers, natural enemies of pests, nitrogenfixing bacteria, and wild relatives of domesticated species.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 92

RESILIENCE
Wild

Figure 23: Key direct andindirect contributions of
biodiversity to food security
Information for this figure
was drawn from a number ofsources 66 - 73, 64, 74-78.

Over 1160 wild plant species used as food by humans 78

At least 2111 insect 68, 1600 bird, 1110 mammal, 140 reptile and
230 amphibian 78 species eaten by humans

Over 1800 species of fish, crustaceans, molluscs, echinoderms,
coelenterates and aquatic plants harvested by global capture fisheries 73
10 species/species groups account for 28% of production 72

1154 species and genera of edible wild mushrooms 66

ITIONS FOR FOOD PRODUCTION

Ecosystems such as seagrass meadows, coral reefs, mangroves, otherwetlands, forests and rangelands that provide habitats and otherecosystem services to numerous species important to food security93

A planetary health diet spares land for biodiversity
and saves lives
Healthy eating can help to save biodiversity and tackle diet-relateddisease risk – the leading cause of premature mortality globally.
Fabrice DeClerck (EAT)

What food we produce and consume, how and where we producethat food, and how much is lost or wasted will determine whether
we can provide a healthy diet, within environmental limits, for a
global population of 10 billion people by 2050 79-82.
For far too long we have been presented with a trade-off between
food security or conservation, with ‘feed the world’ narratives
presented as over-riding those to do with conservation. In the ageof the Anthropocene this is finally changing, with the realisationthat food is failing society both on health and environment grounds.
Diet-related disease risk is the primary driver of premature
mortality globally, and food production is the primary driver of
biodiversity loss and water pollution. It also accounts for 20-30% of
greenhouse gas emissions.
Many models suggest that food security, nutritional security,
climate security, environmental security and livelihood security are
possible, and that innovative solutions emerge when these goals are
considered as equally non-negotiable 81, 82. These are the five ‘ands’of the Andthropocene.
Overconsumption in general, and more specifically
overconsumption of meat, has important impacts on both humanand planetary health. The planetary health diet 82 is one that retains
significant flexibility of choice among major food groups whileproviding guidance which, if followed, would make it possible tofeed a global population of 10 billion while halting the conversionof intact ecosystems, and help reduce premature deaths by 11
million each year 79-81. It starts with the assumption that all people,
irrespective of wealth, are entitled to a sufficient (±2,500 kcal perday) and diverse diet with a balanced proportion of protective foods– that is, foods that are rich in vitamins and minerals that provide
immunity, and significantly protect our body from various diseases
and infections. These include whole grains, fruits, nuts, vegetables,
beans and pulses; and fish, eggs, dairy and other animal-sourced
meats in moderation where desired.

The terraces of the garden in the Municipal School PA Sapiquá are built withreused plastic bottles to promote a circular economy as part of a water conservation
project implemented by local NGOs, Brazil.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 94

© Jaime Rojo / WWF-US

95

The second rise of the humble potato:
buffering against hunger and climate change
Andean native potatoes comprise a wealth of biodiversity that could
contribute to the food security of an increasingly crowded, climatestressed world. Conserving them is essential.
Ginya Truitt Nakata(International Potato Center)

Since the first tubers were taken from South America to Europe
in the 16th century the potato has spread across the globe and is
now the world’s third most consumed crop. However, it is highly
susceptible to disease, as Ireland’s Great Famine proved, andvulnerable to the weather extremes exacerbated by climate change.
The Andes region is the birthplace of the potato and is home to atleast 4,500 types of native tuber cornucopia, including more than
100 wild potato species. Local farmers grow and eat an array ofnative potatoes that together provide relatively high levels of zinc,iron, potassium, vitamin C and antioxidants, and are fundamental
to the health of Indigenous communities.
Adaptable and highly productive, the potato has saved millions
from hunger. Yet one study has estimated that climate-induced
weather extremes could drive 13 wild potato species to extinction
by 2055 – and we know that the loss of just one species could becatastrophic. In 2007 one of many unexpected frosts wiped out
the entire potato harvest in Peru’s Huancavelica region, except
for yana. This single variety came between local families andextreme hunger.
The Andes’ potato agrobiodiversity remains key to strengthening
the resilience of farming communities and is used by scientists
to breed nutritious, disease-resistant potato varieties for theworld. The International Potato Center recognises biodiversity’s
fundamental contribution to human and planetary health, andworks with Andean farmers to maintain potato diversity. Just oneof these varieties could hold the key to alleviating the next global
hunger crisis 83.

A selection of potato varieties withina market in Huancayo, Peru.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 96

© Ginya Truitt Nakata / The International Potato Center (CIP)97

HUMAN WEALTH DEPENDS ON
NATURE’S HEALTH
Our economies are embedded within nature, and it is only byrecognising and acting on this reality that we can protect andenhance biodiversity and improve our economic prosperity.
Sir Partha Dasgupta(Lead Reviewer of the Dasgupta Review
and the University of Cambridge)
Inger Andersen(Executive Director,
UN Environment Programme)

COVID-19 is nature sending us a message. In fact, it reads like an
SOS signal for the human enterprise, bringing into sharp focus
the need to live within the planet’s ‘safe operating space’. The
environmental, health and economic consequences of failing to do
so are disastrous.
Now more than ever before, technological advances allow us tolisten to such messages and better understand the natural world.
We can estimate the value of ‘natural capital’ – the planet’s stock ofrenewable and non-renewable natural resources, like plants, soils
and minerals – alongside values of produced and human capital –for example, roads and skills – which together form a measure of acountry’s true wealth.
Data from the United Nations Environment Programme showsthat, per person, our global stock of natural capital has declined
nearly 40% since the early 1990s, while produced capital has
doubled and human capital has increased by 13% 84.
But too few of our economic and finance decision-makers know
how to interpret what we are hearing, or, even worse, they choose
not to tune in at all. A key problem is the mismatch between theartificial ‘economic grammar’ which drives public and private policyand ‘nature’s syntax’ which determines how the real world operates.
The result is that we miss the message.
In recent decades we’ve heard repeatedly that we’ve ‘never had it
so good’. Since the mid-20th century, humanity has prospered at an
unprecedented rate. The average person today enjoys a far higher
income, is less likely to be in absolute poverty, and lives significantly
longer than their ancestors. These are tremendous achievements.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 98

But these successes have come hand in hand with a profounddegradation of the biosphere, and extensive biodiversity loss. This
extreme contradiction is unsustainable. Simple estimates of our
total impact on nature now suggest that maintaining the world’s
current living standards with our current economic systems, fuelledby unsustainable production and consumption, would require 1.75
Earths (see Chapter 2).
One truly worrying result of our over-demand is that criticalecosystems are reaching tipping points. Ocean heatwaves havealready destroyed half of the shallow-water corals on Australia’s
Great Barrier Reef. As the IPCC reported in 2018, scientists haveprojected that a 2°C global temperature rise will result in thealmost complete eradication (a 99% loss) of coral reefs globally 85.
The economic impacts will be devastating. Large numbers ofpeople depend on coral reef fisheries for livelihoods and nutrition,
particularly in developing countries. Reef tourism and recreation
bring significant economic benefits.
Meanwhile, scientists have also shown that deforestation of ourtropical forests is pushing them dangerously close to tipping
points that would see rainforest switch to savannah. This could
have enormous consequences for the water cycle and cause major
climatic disruption.
So, if the language of economics is failing us, how and where
do we begin to find better answers? Unlike standard models of
economic growth and development, placing ourselves and our
economies within nature helps us to accept that our prosperity is
ultimately bounded by that of our planet. This new grammar isneeded everywhere, from classrooms to boardrooms, and fromlocal councils to national government departments. It has profound
implications for what we mean by sustainable economic growth,
helping to steer our leaders towards making better decisions thatdeliver us, and future generations, the healthier, greener, happier
lives that more and more of us say we want.
The importance of being guided by the science when taking
decisions has become all the more apparent in recent months.
While we still have more to learn about the epidemiology andeffects of COVID-19, the link between biodiversity loss and theemergence and spread of infectious disease is well established. As
discussions about the recovery gather pace, economic and financial
decisions must be guided by the science too.
From now on, protecting and enhancing our environment must beat the heart of how we achieve economic prosperity.

99

The Dasgupta Review on the
Economics of Biodiversity
The Dasgupta Review explores the sustainability of ourengagements with nature: what we take from it; how we transform
what we take from it and return to it; why we have disrupted
nature’s processes; and what we must urgently do differently toenhance our collective wealth and well-being, and that of ourdescendants.
Emily McKenzie, Ant Parham,
Mark Anderson andHaroon Mohamoud(Dasgupta Review Team)The Dasgupta Review is an independent, global review on theeconomics of biodiversity commissioned by HM Treasury – theUK’s economic and finance ministry – in 2019 86. In its framing, theReview shows how humanity, and our economies, are embedded
within – rather than external to – nature, helping us to recognise
the limits nature places on the economy and, in so doing, reshape
our understanding of sustainable economic growth.
A number of central economic and scientific concepts underpin the
Review’s work. These include the need to recognise that biodiversity
is an essential characteristic of nature, playing an important role in
the provision of ecosystem services on which our economies rely;
to view nature as an asset, just as produced and human capitalare assets, and acknowledge that we are failing to manage ourassets efficiently; to understand that the loss of nature is an asset
management problem; to assess how our total demand on nature
outstrips its ability to supply goods and services on a sustainablebasis; and to accept that addressing the supply-demand imbalancemeans confronting difficult questions, including questions about
what and how we consume, how we manage our waste, and the rolefamily planning and reproductive health can play.

Villa Leppefisk salmon farm, Vestnes, Norway.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 100

© Jo Benn / WWF

101

THE LOSS OF NATURE IS A MATERIALRISK FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTAND HUMAN WELL-BEING
In 2020 climate change, biodiversity loss, extreme weather,natural disasters and other human-made environmental
disasters lead an annual World Economic Forum survey of
economic and business risks – the first time the top five risks
have all been environmental.
Dominic Waughray
and Akanksha Khatri(World Economic Forum)

Each year the World Economic Forum presents a global risks
landscape in the annual Global Risks report, based on the outcomesof a Global Risks Perception Survey completed by about 1,000
members of the Forum’s multi-stakeholder community. For the
first time in the 15-year history of the survey, the top five risks are
all environmental, indicating a higher-than-average perception ofboth the likelihood and the impact of these environmental risks
affecting the global economy, and society, within the next 10 years 87.
Figure 24 overleaf shows the global risks landscape of 2019.
The most pressing environmental challenges identified are extreme
weather, climate action failure, biodiversity loss, natural disasters
and other human-made environmental disasters.

© Adriano Gambarini / WWF-Brazil

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 102

The survey result is a wake-up call to remind us that a stableenvironment and planetary health underpin human civilization,
prosperity and growth and there are clear interconnections thatcan be drawn between them. Over the past year, multiple natural
disasters have cost billions of dollars globally, and it is now widely
accepted that physical climate risks are not priced properly intoday’s global economic system. For instance, Munich Re, theworld’s largest reinsurance firm, cited climate change for US$24
billion of losses in the California wildfires 88. In 2019, a severe
drought in Australia drove farmers to sell their feedstock andshut down farm operations as they were unable to keep up withwater prices. In 2019-20, the Australian government announced adrought stimulus package worth more than AU$500 million, with aregional government offering an additional AU$170 million 89.
All economic activities are either directly or indirectly dependent
on nature. The Nature Risk Rising report found that more thanhalf the world’s GDP – US$44 trillion – is highly or moderately
dependent on nature and its services 109. Agriculture and food supply
are where the loss of nature and biodiversity become most critical.
A case in point is the prevalence of monoculture production:for example, 60% of the world’s coffee varieties are in danger ofextinction due to climate change, disease and deforestation 90. If
this were to happen, global coffee markets – a sector with retailsales of US$83 billion in 2017 – would be significantly destabilised,affecting the livelihoods of many smallholder farmers 91.
Tackling interconnected nature risks to secure a resilient economy
and society will require multi-stakeholder collaborations, asno single group can resolve this systemic challenge alone. Post
COVID-19, the urgency of the challenge facing us today also
provides a unique opportunity to reset humanity’s relationship withnature to ensure a nature-positive economy.

A landscape of a dry,cracked soil, Maranhão, Brazil.

103

TOP 5 GLOBAL RISKS IN TERMS OF LIKELIHOOD
2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2

1st

Asset pricecollapse

Storms andcyclones

Incomedisparity

Incomedisparity

Incomedisparity

Interstate
conflict

InvolunmigratChina economic
slowdown

Flooding

2nd

Fiscalimbalances

Fiscalimbalances

Extremeweather

Extremeweather

Extremweath

Chronic
diseases

Corruption

Greenhousegas emissions

Greenhousegas emissions

Unemployment

Failure ofnational
governance

ClimatefailureFiscal crises

Biodiversity loss

Cyberattacks

Water crises

Climate action
failureState collapse
or crisisInterstconflic

Globalgovernancegaps

Climate change

Water crises

Population
ageingCyberattacks

Unemployment

Naturacatastr

3rd

4th

5th

TOP 5 GLOBAL RISKS IN TERMS OF IMPACT
2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2

Asset pricecollapse

Fiscal crises

Financial failure

Financial failure

Fiscal crises

Water crises

1st

ClimatefailureDeglobalization(developed)

Climate change

Water crises

Water crises

2nd

Climate action
failureInfectious
diseases

Weapo
mass
destruOil price spikes

Geopoliticalconflict

Food crises

Fisca
imbalancesl

Water crises

Weapons ofmass
destruction

Water

Chronic
diseases

Asset pricecollapse

Fiscalimbalances

Weapons ofmass
destruction

Unemployment

Interstate
conflict

InvolunmigratFiscal crises

Energyprice volatility

Energyprice volatility

Climate action
failureInfrastructure
breakdown

Climate action
failureEnergyshock

Economic

Environmental

3rd

4th

5th

GeopoliticalSocietal

A “global risk” is defined as an uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, can causesignificant negative impact on several countries or industries within the next 10 years
Note: Global risks may not be strictly comparable
across years, as definitions and the set of global
risks have evolved with new issues emerging on the
10-year horizon. For example, cyberattacks, income
disparity and unemployment entered the

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 104

set of global risks in 2012. Some global risks havebeen reclassified: water crises and income disparity
were recategorised as societal risks in the 2015 and2014 Global Risks Reports, respectively 93, 94.

Technolo

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

Involuntary
migration

Extremeweather

Extremeweather

Extremeweather

Extremeweather

Extremeweather

Involuntary
migration

Naturaldisasters

Climate action
failureClimate action
failureClimate action
failureNaturaldisasters

Cyberattacks

Naturaldisasters

Naturaldisasters

apseInterstate
conflict

Terroristattacks

Data fraud
or theft

Data fraud
or theft

Biodiversity loss

ment

Naturalcatastrophes

Data fraud
or theft

Climate action
failureCyberattacks

Human-madeenvironmental
disasters

ce

ses

of

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

Climate action
failureWeapons ofmass
destruction

Weapons ofmass
destruction

Weapons ofmass
destruction

Climate action
failureWeapons ofmass
destruction

Extremeweather

Extremeweather

Climate action
failureWeapons ofmass
destruction

Water crises

Water crises

Naturaldisasters

Extremeweather

Biodiversity loss

Involuntary
migration

Naturaldisasters

Climate action
failureWater crises

Extremeweather

Energy priceshock

Climate action
failureWater crises

Naturaldisasters

Water crises

n

ction

TechnologicalFigure 24: The evolving risks landscape. Top five perceived global risks in termsof likelihood and impact, according to the World Economic Forum (2020)
The Global Risks Perception Survey is the World Economic Forum’s source of original risks
data, harnessing the expertise of the Forum’s extensive network of business, government,
civil society and thought leaders. For each of the 30 global risks, respondents were asked toassess: (1) the likelihood of each global risk occurring over the course of the next 10 years,
and (2) the severity of its impact at a global level if it were to occur, both on a scale from 1 to5. This figure was adapted from World Economic Forum (2020) 92 and full definitions of eachrisk can be found in the appendix of the report. Source - World Economic Forum (2020) 92.

Key
Economic
Environmental
GeopoliticalSocietalTechnological105

Seed banks as a safety net andinsurance policy
Seed banks worldwide hold around 7 million crop
samples, helping to safeguard biodiversity andglobal nutritional security.
Luigi Guarino(Crop Trust)In the past few decades hundreds of local, national, regional andinternational seed banks have been established, complementing
on-farm and in situ plant conservation, much as some zoos arepart of the mosaic of animal species conservation 67. At theirheart are cold stores holding a worldwide total of approximately
7 million seed samples of crops, including forage and fodder
plants, and their wild relatives. Perhaps the most well-known
seed bank, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway, provides
a back-up service for when things go wrong in other seed banks.
For species that either do not produce seeds or whose seeds
cannot be stored at low temperatures, conservation takes placewith live plants in the field or in tissue culture in labs. Seedbanks are used by researchers and plant breeders to develop
new, improved crop varieties. They have also provided farmers
with varieties they have lost. The International Treaty for Plant
Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture provides the rules
under which crop diversity in seed banks is accessed, andbenefits shared. Target 2.5 of the UN Sustainable Development
Goals explicitly links the work of seed banks to global
nutritional security.

A view of the front of the Svalbard Global
Seed Vault, Svalbard archipelago, Norway.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 106

© Svalbard Global Seed Vault / Riccardo Gangale

107

A PARADIGM SHIFT IN THE WAY WE
ASSESS NATURE
People value nature in many different ways, and bringing
these together can be used to shape policies that will create ahealthy and resilient planet for people and nature.
Berta Martin-Lopez(Leuphana University, Lüneburg)and Sandra Díaz
(CONICET and Córdoba
National University, Argentina and
IPBES Global Assessment Co-Chair)

Nature’s Contributions to People refers to all the contributions,both positive and negative, that nature makes to people’s quality oflife 1. Building on the ecosystem service concept popularised by theMillennium Ecosystem Assessment 95, the Nature’s Contributions
to People concept includes a wide range of descriptions of humandependence on nature, such as ecosystem goods and services
and nature’s gifts. It recognises the central role that culture plays
in defining all links between people and nature. It also elevates,emphasises and operationalises the role of indigenous andlocal knowledge 1, 100.
Until recently, the conceptualisation of, and practical work on,
ecosystem services have focused on assessing and valuing thoseservice flows with biophysical and economic approaches comingfrom natural sciences and economics respectively. This approach
has largely failed to engage a range of perspectives from social
sciences, humanities 96, or those of local actors including Indigenous
peoples and local communities 1.
The Nature’s Contributions to People approach explicitly recognisesthat a range of views of nature exist. At one extreme, humans andnature are viewed as distinct; at the other, humans and nonhuman entities are interwoven in deep relationships of kinship andreciprocal obligations 97, 98. It uses two lenses to assess how people
relate to nature: generalising and context-specific perspectives.
The generalising perspective is typical of the natural sciencesand economics and is fundamentally analytical in purpose; itseeks a universally applicable set of categories that define flows
from nature to people. IPBES identified and assessed 18 of thesecategories and organised them in three partially overlappinggroups: regulating, material and nonmaterial contributions 1, 13.
Trends in these categories and their indicators are explored more
earlier in this chapter on pages 78-79. These are defined according
to the type of contribution they make to people’s quality of life.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 108

•	Material contributions are substances, objects or othermaterial elements from nature that directly sustain people’s
physical existence and material assets. For example, this includes
when organisms are transformed into food, energy or materials
for ornamental purposes.
•	Nonmaterial contributions are nature’s effects on subjectiveor psychological aspects underpinning people’s quality of life,
both individually and collectively. Examples include forests andcoral reefs providing opportunities for recreation and inspiration,or particular animals and plants being the basis of spiritual orsocial-cohesion experiences.
•	Regulating contributions frequently affect quality of life inindirect ways. They are the functional and structural aspects oforganisms and ecosystems that modify environmental conditions
experienced by people, and/or regulate the generation of material
and nonmaterial contributions. For example, people directly
enjoy useful or beautiful plants but only indirectly benefit fromthe soil organisms that are essential for the supply of nutrients tosuch plants.
Culture permeates through and across all three groups rather thanbeing confined to an isolated category.
The context-specific perspective is the perspective typicalof, but not exclusive to, local and indigenous knowledge systems.
Providing space for context-specific perspectives recognisesthat there are multiple ways of understanding and categorising
relationships between people and nature.
Although presented as extremes, these two perspectives areoften blended and interwoven – therefore recognising both theseapproaches leads to a richer understanding of how biodiversity
contributes to people’s quality of life and reveals solutions for thesustainable management of nature and the many contributions it
makes to our lives 99, 100.

109

Looking ahead: a different way to imagine our
future with nature
Putting nature at the centre of global biodiversity scenario
development recognises the fundamental role it plays in humanwell-being and may help to inspire transformative change.
Carolyn Lundquist(National Institute of Water
and Atmospheric Research,
New Zealand, and the
University of Auckland),Henrique Pereira(Martin Luther University andGerman Centre for Integrative
Biodiversity Research – iDiv),
HyeJin Kim(Martin Luther University andGerman Centre for Integrative
Biodiversity Research – iDiv)
and Isabel Rosa
(Bangor University)

Our values, as humans, influence the choices we make and theseunderpin the development of a new approach to environmental
scenarios, catalysed by the IPBES Task Force on Scenarios andModels. The Nature Futures Framework builds on the different
ways in which people experience and value nature 101, 102:‘Nature for Nature’, where people value nature for its intrinsic
and existence values; ‘Nature for Society’, which views
nature as provider of direct and indirect benefits to society; and‘Nature as Culture’ where people and nature are connected
and the sense of identity derived from cultural landscapes andrelational values dominates 103. These human-nature relationships
are being used to develop scenarios that explore different
socioeconomic development pathways, where one or more ofthese perspectives dominates, identifying potential trade-offs andco-benefits across the three perspectives.
The Nature Futures Framework is designed to be adaptable acrossthe diversity of local and regional societal, cultural, policy andgovernance contexts 104, adding new perspectives to the diversityof human values, relationships with nature, and how these canmotivate society to act to bend the curve of biodiversity loss 105.

Close up of a Madagascan dwarf chameleon (Brookesia micra), the world’s
smallest chameleon, endemic to Nosy Hara archipelago in Madagascar.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 110

© Nick Riley / WWF-Madagascar

111

CHAPTER 4IMAGINING A ROADMAP FORPEOPLE AND NATURE
Our imagination creates the new worlds we could live in.
Now, the remarkable rise in computing power and artificial
intelligence allows us, with ever-increasing sophistication, tolook at a range of complex possible futures asking not only
‘what?’, but also ‘what if? These models are all telling us thesame thing: that we still have an opportunity to flatten, andreverse, the loss of nature if we take urgent and unprecedented
conservation action and make transformational changes in theway we produce and consume food.
Children play in the ocean on Pasir Panjang beach, Kei Kecil, Maluku Islands,
Indonesia.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 112

© James Morgan / WWF-US

113

CHOICE OR CHANCE:COUNTDOWN TO THE FUTURE
Will 2020 go down in history as the year in which COVID-19
served as the catalyst to completely alter our future
relationship with nature? Cutting-edge new modelling showsthat with urgent action it is still possible to halt loss andreverse the trend of nature’s decline.
Michael Obersteiner(The Environmental Change Institute,
University of Oxford and IIASA)

Our imagination creates the new worlds we could live in. Building
digital twins of our living planet allows us to better imagine many
possible future states of life on planet Earth. The in-silico twins of
the Earth are created in computer models of the Earth system andits biodiversity. Modelling is used around the world every day, topredict the weather, to plan traffic, forecast population growth areas
to understand where to build schools – and, in conservation, tounderstand, how to most effectively manage for better biodiversity
outcomes with least costs. Now, the remarkable rise in computing
power and artificial intelligence allows us, with ever-increasing
sophistication, to look at a range of complex possible futures asking
not only ‘what?’, but also ‘what if?’
There is no better case in point than COVID-19, which haspropelled scenario modelling to the forefront of our daily lives. In a
real-time global experiment, mathematicians and epidemiologists
have used specialised software and complex programming code
to take what they measured and know about the virus, then usedsimulations to test different control strategies, such as social
distancing and lockdowns, and compared them against results
projected from business as usual. Based on this scenario modelling,
politicians have made difficult decisions on paths of action, withtrade-offs between public health and economic consequences.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 114

This Living Planet Report – like others before it, as well as an
overwhelming body of other scientific literature – sets out agrim diagnosis for our natural world, and consequently for thehuman enterprise. For more than 30 years, since the Brundtland
Commission’s Our Common Future report in 1987, scientists,
environmentalists and many others have called for dramaticchanges to how we produce, consume and protect our world. Now,
today’s computing power has been used to develop a proof ofconcept to do just this – to bend the curve of biodiversity loss.
This pioneering effort started in 2018, when WWF began acollaboration with a consortium of almost 50 partners to launch
the Bending the Curve Initiative. For the first time, multiple models
have been integrated to help us understand how we can reverse theloss of nature, save millions of species from extinction, and guard
humans against a risky future. And the models are all telling us thesame thing: that we still have an opportunity to flatten, and reverse,
the loss of nature if we take urgent and unprecedented conservation
action and make transformational changes in the way we produce
and consume food.
Yet an important question remains. It is not, ‘What kind of futureworld do we want?’ – this seems evident: one in which humanity
not only survives but thrives, which means a planet on which
nature also survives and thrives.

115

WHAT IF?
SCENARIOS EXPLORING HOW TO BEND
THE CURVE OF BIODIVERSITY LOSS
Pioneering modelling has provided the first ‘proof of concept’
that we can halt, and reverse, terrestrial biodiversity loss fromland-use change. With an unprecedented and immediate
focus on both conservation and a transformation of ourmodern food system, the Bending the Curve Initiative gives us
a roadmap to restore biodiversity and feed a growing humanpopulation.
David Leclère (IIASA)

We know that nature is being changed and destroyed by us
at a rate unprecedented in history, driven largely through theconversion of natural habitats for agriculture and forestry. While
many conservation efforts have been locally successful, they
have not been able to stop this global trend: the land demand forfood, animal feed and energy provision is increasing, and already
impacting the ecosystem services that we depend upon.
Some conservation groups have proposed ambitious targets tosave nature, such as conserving half of the Earth. However, there isno evidence as to whether these targets can be achieved, and theywould inevitably involve trade-offs – for example, with providing
for people’s basic needs such as food 45 and livelihoods 46, as well aswith addressing climate change to keep warming below the targetof 1.5°C.
The Bending the Curve Initiative 47 used multiple state-of-theart models and scenarios to investigate whether we can reverse
terrestrial biodiversity declines – and if so, how. Building on
pioneering work that modelled pathways to achieve sustainability
objectives 48 and recent efforts by the scientific community for theIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and IPBES 49-51,
seven future what-if scenarios were developed.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 116

The reference what-if scenario is based on the IPCC’s ‘middle-ofthe-road’ scenario (SSP2 in Fricko, O. et al. (2017) 52) and assumes abusiness-as-usual future, with limited efforts towards conservationand sustainable production and consumption. In this scenario,
human population peaks at 9.4 billion by 2070, economic growth
is moderate and uneven, and globalisation continues. In addition
to the reference scenario, six additional what-if scenarios weredeveloped to explore the potential effects of different actions.
Just as with modelling for climate change, or indeed COVID-19,
interventions to determine possible future pathways were broken
into action ‘wedges’. These include measures around increased
conservation as well as reducing the impact of our global foodsystem on terrestrial biodiversity, in terms of both production
and consumption.
Three of the scenarios picture single types of interventions aimed
at bending the curve:
1. The increased conservation efforts (C) scenario
included an increase in the extent and managementof protected areas, and increased restoration andlandscape-level conservation planning. It assumed an
extension of protected areas in 2020 to all areas currently
covered by the World Database on Protected Areas, the World
Database of Key Biodiversity Areas, and Wilderness Areas. These
areas were assumed to be efficiently managed so that no landuse change detrimental to biodiversity is allowed. In addition, in
all areas managed for production activities, financial incentives
encouraging both restoration and land-use planning for betterbiodiversity outcomes are implemented from 2020, starting with
low incentives and increasing towards mid-century.
2. The more sustainable production (supply-side efforts
or SS) scenario included higher and more sustainable
increases in both agricultural productivity and tradeof agricultural goods. It assumed that the yield of domestic
crops and the productivity of livestock activities will rise slightly
more strongly than in the reference scenario at the global scale,with crop yields increasing more rapidly in developing countries
so they converge towards the level seen in higher yielding,developed countries. Trade in agricultural commodities acrossthe globe is facilitated, assuming a more globalised economy andreduced trade barriers. For both aspects, assumptions follow
those of the IPCC’s ‘sustainability’ scenario (SSP1, van Vuuren,
D.P. et al. (2017) 53, instead of SSP2).

117

3. The more sustainable consumption (demand-side
efforts or DS) scenario included reduced waste of
agricultural goods from field to fork and a diet shift to alower share of animal calories in high meat-consuming
countries. It assumed that total loss throughout the foodsupply chain (losses in harvest, processing, distribution and final
household consumption) will decline linearly between 2020 and
2050, culminating in a 50% reduction in loss by 2050. Dietary
preferences evolve linearly towards 50% less meat consumption
by 2050 compared to the reference scenario (animal calories
are replaced by vegetal calories), except in regions with a low
share of meat in current diets like the Middle East, Sub-SaharanAfrica, India, Southeast Asia and other Pacific Islands, where
dietary preferences for meat follow the reference scenario.
The three other scenarios modelled different combinations of theseincreased efforts:
4. The fourth looked at conservation and sustainableproduction (C+SS scenario).
5. The fifth combined conservation and sustainableconsumption (C+DS).
6. The sixth scenario investigated interventions in all three sectors
at once. This was known as the ‘integrated action portfolio’of interventions, or IAP scenario.
Four land-use models 54 translated each scenario into future mapsof the share of land occupied by 12 land uses, from built-up areas
to primary forests, on a grid of ca. 50km resolution, every 10 years
throughout the 21st century. Biodiversity models translated theseland-use maps into global and regional biodiversity outcomes.
Using eight models allowed the modelling to not only capture
uncertainties, but also to grasp five facets of biodiversity: the extent
of suitable habitat, wildlife abundance, compositional intactnessof ecological communities, and regional and global species
extinctions.

Butterflies in a clearing in Messok-Dja National Park, Republic of Congo.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 118

© Daniël Nelson

119Bending the curve

Difference to 2010 indicator value

0.05

●
●●●

0.00

●●

−0.05

●

2000 2010

2050

2100

The projected change
in biodiversity undereach land-use change
model in 2100

Scenario (mean & range across land use change models)Key
Historical

Inc. conservation efforts (C)Baseline (BASE)

Inc. conservation & supply-side efforts (C+SS)

Supply-side efforts (SS)Inc. conservation & demand-side efforts (C+DS)

Demand-side efforts (DS)Integrated action portolio (IAP)

2100 values for individual land-use change

AIM

GLOBIOM

IMAGE

MAgPIE

Figure 25: Projected contributions of various efforts to reverse
biodiversity trends from land-use change
Sourced from Leclère et al. (2020) 47. This illustration uses one biodiversity
indicator to show how future actions to reverse biodiversity trends have varying
results across the seven scenarios indicated by different colours. The line andshaded area for each scenario represent the average and range of the projected
relative changes across four land-use models (compared to 2010). This graphshows the projected response of one of the biodiversity indicators – mean species
abundance, or MSA – using one of the biodiversity models (GLOBIO – more details
about all the biodiversity indicators and models can be found in the technicalsupplement). Biodiversity trends differ between the indicators. Figure 27 provides
an overview the main outcomes projected under each combination of scenarios.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 120

The thick coloured lines on the graph show how biodiversity is
projected to respond under each scenario. As four land-use models
were used, this shows the average value across all of them.
The grey line shows that in the reference baseline ‘business-asusual’ scenario, global biodiversity trends continue declining
throughout the 21st century, with a speed similar to recent decades
until 2050.
Single interventions:•	The red line shows the effect of putting in place sustainableproduction measures alone.
•	The blue line shows the effect of putting in place sustainableconsumption interventions alone.
•	The green line shows the effect of putting in place more
ambitious conservation measures alone.
Integrated interventions combine these three in differentways:•	The purple line shows how biodiversity is projected to respond
if increased conservation measures are combined with moresustainable production efforts.
•	The light blue line shows how biodiversity is projected to respond
if increased conservation measures are combined with moresustainable consumption efforts.
•	The yellow line shows how biodiversity responds under the‘integrated action portfolio’ that combines all three single
interventions: increased conservation measures and moresustainable production and consumption efforts.

121

Conservation is critical but not enough – we must alsotransform food production and consumption patterns
This research shows that bolder conservation efforts are key tobending the curve: more than any other single type of action,
increased conservation was found to limit further biodiversity
losses in the future and to set global biodiversity trends on arecovery trajectory. Yet, if implemented alone, these efforts could
lead to increases in the price of agricultural products, thereby
increasing risks of hunger (Figure 27). Results show this tradeoff could be strongly reduced by additional actions related tosustainable production and consumption such as closing yield gaps,
reducing waste, or favouring healthier and more sustainable diets.
Taking these additional actions would also mean a much larger
share of future biodiversity losses would be avoided than withincreased conservation efforts alone, and recovery would begin
earlier (see Figure 26 for more information).
These findings make it clear that only an integrated approach,combining ambitious conservation with measures targeting thedrivers of habitat conversion – such as sustainable production
or consumption interventions, or preferably both – will succeed
in bending the curve of biodiversity loss. It is only under thesescenarios that the biodiversity trends from habitat conversion
might still be reversed by 2030, whilst also avoiding an increasein food prices. These points are explored in detail in Figure 27.

Bending curves for people and nature
The study also looked at the concept of ‘peak loss’ of biodiversity.
Peak loss has two components to it – when recovery begins andhow much is lost before then. The date of peak loss is the year whena biodiversity indicator – like the Living Planet Index – reaches its
minimum, before ‘bending’ upwards. This date combined with therate at which biodiversity is lost determines the overall size ofpeak loss for each scenario. In reality, some of these losses might
be irreversible – once a species of animal or plant becomes
extinct, it cannot return. Minimising future peak loss is therefore
critically important.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 122

Figure 26 illustrates when, and how much, peak loss occurs undereach scenario. Bold conservation measures – in green – is the mostefficient ‘single action’ scenario. However, it cannot guarantee
to either bend the curve or fully avoid future biodiversity losses
by 2050. In contrast, combining conservation measures withsustainable consumption or production interventions – or both, as
illustrated in the IAP scenario, in yellow – simultaneously bends
the curve before 2050 and avoids a large share of the potential
biodiversity losses by then.

THE BIODIVERSITY CURVE STARTS TO BEND UPWARDS
AT A DIFFERENT TIME UNDER EACH SCENARIO - WHEN AND
HOW DEPENDS ON WHICH ACTIONS ARE TAKEN

Biodiversity indicator value

In order to bend the curve any earlier
than 2050 and minimise biodiversity
losses, ambitious conservation needs
to be combined with sustainableproduction and consumption
measures - the yellow line.

2010 INDICATOR VALUE

Conservation actions are crucial but
the green line shows that alone theycannot bend the curve before 2050,
and will allow much greater
overall losses.
The grey line shows that biodiversity
continues to decline if we continue on
our current path and recovery does
not begin before 2100.

1970

1990

2050

Figure 26:
What bending the curve means for biodiversity, andhow to get there. This illustration uses one biodiversity
indicator (Mean species abundance, MSA) for one
biodiversity model (GLOBIO), averaged across the four
land use models, to explain what the different scenariosmean for projected biodiversity trends and what thistells us about how to bend the curve. Adapted from
Leclère et al. (2020) 47.

2100
Scenario(mean across land-use change models)Historical
Baseline
Increased conservation efforts
Integrated Action Portfolio
The date when recovery begins

123Combining sustainable production or sustainable consumption
interventions – or preferably both – with bolder conservation
measures will represent a deep transformation of our food system.
Yet such a transformation would also provide large co-benefits
for the environment, through reduced greenhouse gas emissions,
fertiliser application and irrigation water consumption (Figure 27).
As other studies show, it would also provide significant co-benefits
in terms of improved health 56. An integrated action portfolio would
therefore not only reduce the trade-offs between conservation
and agricultural production, but would also embark us upon atransformation that is more consistent with the wider sustainable
development agenda and balances the needs of people and nature.
OUTCOMES PROJECTED BY THE MODELS
Trends in other sustainability dimensions of land use

Targeted
efforts
Integrated
combined efforts

INTERVENTION SCENARIOS

Limitedefforts

Global biodiversity trends

Key

rationale:

Marketprice ofcrops by
2050

Other environmental impacts by 2050
GHG
emissions

Water use

Nitrogenapplication
as fertilizer









Reference

decline until last quarter of 21st century

Increased supply-side efforts

slightly more moderate decline until lastquarter of 21st century









Increased demand-side efforts

slightly more moderate decline until lastquarter of 21st century









Increased conservation efforts

slightly more moderate decline until about
2050, followed by moderate recovery



-





Increased conservation andsupply-side efforts

small decline followed by faster recovery
starting before 2050









Increased conservation anddemand-side efforts

small decline followed by faster recovery
starting before 2050









Integrated action portfolio (allefforts combined)

small decline followed by faster recovery
starting before 2050









Biodiversity

Price trends

GHG emissions

Water use

Nitrogen application
as fertilizer

decline-increasevery strong (>50%) increasestrong (>20%) increaseslightly lower decline

strong (>20%) decline
or increasestablestrong increase (>20%)

moderate increase (10%-20%)

slightly lower decline followedby moderate recovery

moderate (10-20%) decline

small (<10%) to moderate(10-20%) decrease

moderate increase (<20%)small increase (<10%)small decline followed by fasterrecoverysmall decline (< 10%)strong (>20%) decline

decreasedecrease

biodiversity

colour qualifies distance from target = bending the curve

pricecolour qualifies distance from target = decline (from a food security perspective) but not too strong (from a producer perspective)

other envtl impacts

colour indicates whether or not pressures are transgressing (red), within uncertainty range (orange) or below planetary
boundary (green)

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 124

Looking ahead
The Bending the Curve Initiative shows that bold conservation
efforts and food system transformation are central to an effective
post-2020 biodiversity strategy. They are also essential components
of a roadmap towards building a resilient future where both people
and nature thrive.
It is important to note that these models focus on the strongest
driver of terrestrial biodiversity loss, land-use change. Ongoing
research is making this roadmap more complete. Threats notincluded in this analysis, like climate change or invasive species,
will also become more important in the future. While work isalready underway to investigate how to tackle these threats, it isclear that leaving them unaddressed could jeopardise chances tobend the curve. Bending the curve could, therefore, require evenmore ambitious action than is anticipated here.
Global modelling also needs to be implemented at a national andlocal level. Global networks of national research teams are using
models and scenarios to support the design of integrated andconcrete national-level policies. These will contribute towards bothnational and global sustainability targets. One of these initiatives –the Food, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Land-Use and Energy (FABLE)
Consortium – is explored later in this chapter.

Figure 27: Summary of the main outcomes projected for the various
scenarios
Rows denote scenarios: the reference scenario (top row), and additional efforts
as previously described. Higher levels of integration and ambition are towards
the bottom of the table. Columns display the outcomes projected by the ensembleof models for each scenario, including trends in both future global biodiversity
and sustainability aspects such as crop prices and other environmental impactsof agriculture. For the latter trends, arrows denote the direction and amplitude ofrelative change projected from 2010 to 2050. Colour codes indicate a sustainability
assessment, picturing the distance to target for biodiversity (bending the curve)and crop prices (small decline to reduce food insecurity while limiting pressure
on producers) and positioning with respect to planetary boundaries for otherenvironmental impacts (above boundary for red colours, within uncertainty
range for yellow, and below boundary for green), inspired from Figure 2 ofSpringmann et al. (2018) 55.

125

DIFFERENT WAYS TO GET TO THE
FUTURE WE WANT
Complementing the roadmap emerging from the Bending
the Curve Initiative, other new modelling has evaluatedthe effectiveness of two contrasting conservation planning
strategies, each combined with measures to meet global
climate and food security targets. Both are able to bend thecurve of biodiversity loss, but this is only possible whencombined with strong climate mitigation.
Jelle Hilbers(Institute for Water and Wetland
Research, Radboud University,
Nijmegen, The Netherlands)

Before COVID-19 stopped the world in its tracks, 2020 was being
hailed as a ‘super-year for nature’ with three major conferences set
to determine the pathway for action on climate and biodiversity overthe next decade. At the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in
Glasgow, countries were to submit their new long-term emission
reduction goals; the UN Convention on Biological Diversity was tomeet in Kunming in China to agree a new framework and targets;and a Leader’s Biodiversity Summit was planned for October in New
York as part of the UN’s 75th anniversary celebrations.
Most of these conferences have been pushed into 2021, but muchof the work helping to underpin the decision-making has been
done. This included new scenario projections with the IMAGEGLOBIO framework that explored the ability of two contrasting
conservation planning strategies to bend the curve of biodiversity
loss, while incorporating measures to safeguard global food security
and limit global warming to well below 2°C. By looking at thesegoals simultaneously, some of the potential trade-offs from climate
mitigation could be addressed while exploring the full mitigation
potential of land-based measures.
The IMAGE-GLOBIO modelling framework 16, 17 was used to explore
the effectiveness of these two contrasting strategies under theassumptions of a business-as-usual trend for population growthand socio-economic development (SSP2). It also aimed to achieve
climate change mitigation and food security goals in 205018.
Newly threshed rice ready to be brought to a milling areafor husk removal, Camarines Sur, Bicol, Philippines.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 126

© Jürgen Freund / WWF

127

The first of these high-profile conservation strategies – the ‘halfEarth’ scenario – calls for the expansion of the world’s protectedareas to cover half of the Earth 9-13. This strategy is based on the
belief that it is best to separate human pressures from nature tobend the curve of biodiversity loss. It relies on what’s known as‘land-sparing’: that is, promoting wilderness through restorationand the extension of protected and conservation areas.
In contrast, the second conservation strategy – the ‘sharing theplanet’ scenario – aims to support biodiversity while providing
goods and services for humanity 14, 15. This strategy takes theview that it is best to live with and through nature, connecting
biodiversity targets with the achievement of a good quality of life.
It relies on ‘land-sharing’ or integrating biodiversity conservation
within the agricultural landscape.
In the ‘half Earth’ scenario, 50% of each ecoregion in the world
was protected for biodiversity conservation, while the other 50%
was used to sustain human needs. To safeguard food security, this
scenario also included the sustainable intensification of agricultural
production by, for example, efficient nutrient use, pest management
and genetic modification.
The ‘sharing the planet’ scenario focused on conserving areasthat support and enhance the provisioning of various ecosystemservices (such as carbon storage, pollination and pest control)by adding high-carbon forests, riparian zones, water towers,
peatlands and urban green spaces to current protected areas andkey biodiversity areas, covering up to 30% of the global terrestrial
area. This scenario relied on agricultural production from advanced
agroecology, organic farming, agroforestry and diversified
farming systems.
It was found that both conservation strategies have the potential
to reverse the trend of biodiversity loss, but only in combination
with a broader set of sustainability measures aimed at mitigatingclimate change and safeguarding food security. These include
production measures in agricultural and energy systems (e.g.
increasing agricultural productivity) as well as consumptionbased measures (such as reducing food waste and animal productconsumption). With this full package of measures, losses in local
compositional biodiversity intactness (as measured by the mean
species abundance indicator) were reversed in 2030 and numbers
increased to similar or higher values in 2050 compared to 2015,
while the number of people at risk of hunger decreased and theglobal temperature increase was kept well below 2°C.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 128

Modelling like this can help us to understand the effectiveness andpotential trade-offs of different actions and to make choices on thepathway forwards. The ‘half Earth’ strategy slightly outperformedthe ‘sharing the planet’ strategy in terms of biodiversity restoration,
while ‘sharing the planet’ was more beneficial in terms of ecosystemservice provisioning, food prices and food security. These results
suggest a need to combine both conservation strategies, suchthat areas strictly protected for biodiversity conservation are
surrounded by human-used land that is managed favourably forbiodiversity and ecosystem services provisioning 15.

BIODIVERSITY:
GLOBAL MEAN SPECIES ABUNDANCE (TERRESTRIAL)

CLIMATE:GLOBAL SURFACE TEMPERATURE CHANGE

0.62

0.56
0.54
0.52
0.50

2015

2025

2035

2045

2055

2065

2075

2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
2015

2025

2035

2045

2055

2065

2.0

Figure 28:
Overall results for biodiversity,
climate change and food security for‘half Earth’ and ‘sharing the planet’
strategies , conservation only andintegrated sustainability scenarios 18.

1.5

Key

FOOD SECURITY:GLOBAL FOOD PRICES

2075

Baseline (SSP2)
Half Earth integrated sustainability

1.0

Half Earth conservation only
pbl.nlIndex (2015 = 1)2.5

pbl.nl0.58

pbl.nlMean Species Abundance

0.60

Degrees Celcius since pre-industrial age

3.0

0.5
2015

2025

2035

2045

2055

2065

2075

Sharing the Planet integrated sustainability
Sharing the Planet conservation only

129

The future predicted rise of biological invasions
In contrast to other major drivers of global biodiversity loss,
the lack of models and scenarios of biological invasions severely
hampers the evaluation of ongoing and future rises in invasive alien
species numbers.
Bernd Lenzner, Guillaume
Latombe and Franz Essl
(University of Vienna),
Hanno Seebens(Senckenberg Biodiversity andClimate Research Centre)
and Brian Leung(McGill University)

Alien species numbers are rising unabatedly, having increased by
37% since 1970 without signs of saturation 1. Invasive alien species
pose major threats to global biodiversity 2, ecosystem services 3
and human livelihoods 4. Consequently, there is an urgent needto project and evaluate future trajectories of their accumulation,
abundances and impacts, which are currently absent from global
biodiversity modelling initiatives 5.
The AlienScenarios consortium is currently developing the firstqualitative and quantitative global scenarios of biological invasions
until 2100 6 and investigating the effect of different drivers. For
instance, global shipping – which today accounts for 90% of world
trade 7 – will increase by up to >1,200% under alternative scenarios(Figure 29) 8. This may result in a three- to twentyfold increase inmarine invasions and highlights the importance of international
policies to bend the curve. Other socio-ecological drivers needcomparable analyses in the context of invasive alien species, andthese scenarios will provide crucially needed insights for policy
and management.

Figure 29: Current andprojected future global shipping
network under two different
Shared Socioeconomic
Pathways scenarios 8
Shipping networks in 2014 (top), in
2050 under the lowest-case traffic
growth (SSP3 – the Regional Rivalry
pathway, middle) and under thehighest-case traffic growth (SSP5 – theFossil-fuelled Development pathway,bottom). The predicted change
illustrates the potential future risk ofinvasive alien species introductions
from shipping alone.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 130

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ZOOMING IN: COUNTRY-LED MODELLING TO
ACHIEVE LONG-TERM SUSTAINABILITYIN FOOD AND LAND-USE SYSTEMS
Global modelling needs to be implemented at a local level.
Country-led analyses indicate that reversing biodiversity
decline is possible after 2020 with targeted national
strategies, ranging from dietary changes to restrictions onland conversion.
Aline Mosnier (Sustainable
Development Solutions Network),
Sarah Jones (Bioversity International,
Parc Scientifique Agropolis II),
Jordan Poncet (Sustainable
Development Solutions Network) andthe FABLE Consortium

Many governments are currently revising the ambition of theirclimate and biodiversity strategies. To be effective, these willneed to include measures to support a transformation towards
sustainable land-use and food systems, and consider the impacts
of international trade. Yet most countries lack the integrated
analytical models to understand and address the complex synergies
and trade-offs involved.
The Food, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Land-Use, and Energy
Consortium (FABLE) is a knowledge network of national
institutions from 20 countries aiming to fill this gap by preparing
integrated, long-term pathways that describe options for achieving
mid-century sustainability objectives at the national level 19, 20.
FABLE’s 2019 and preliminary 2020 results 19, 20 suggest that
substantial progress can be made towards achieving targets on
biodiversity conservation, greenhouse gas emissions reductions
from agriculture and land-use change, and food security by 2050.
These results incorporate nationally based assumptions on thefeasibility of transformation, including assumptions on dietaryshifts, the evolution of productivity, and afforestation targets.
Our 2019 results show that at least 50% of the Earth’s terrestrial
area could be managed to support biodiversity conservation by
2050. This target for biodiversity conservation could be achieved
while also ensuring food security, reducing carbon emissions, andsupporting reforestation initiatives. Major caveats are that we do
not consider biodiversity supported by habitat on agricultural land,

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 132

the management intensity of grassland, or uncertainties related torates and levels of biodiversity reestablishment on afforested andabandoned agricultural land.
Achieving these objectives by 2050 will require spatially explicit
national actions, such as establishing effective protectedareas 21, 22, reforested land 23, and multifunctional working
landscapes 24, 15. FABLE, in collaboration with the Nature Map
Initiative 25, local experts and other stakeholders, is developinga methodology to prioritise areas for future protection andrestoration as part of each national pathway.

Pathways for sustainable food and land-use
systems in Ethiopia
The long-term pathway for Ethiopia draws heavily fromthe country’s Climate Resilient Green Economy strategy,
its Growth Transformation Plan II, the Agricultural
Growth Program, and targets from the Bonn Challenge,a global effort to restore 350 million hectares of theworld’s deforested and degraded lands by 2030. Using
the FABLE Calculator 26, our 2019 results show that morethan 60% of Ethiopia’s land could support biodiversity
in 2050 27. Higher demand for animal products leads
to pasture expansion but a strong increase in crop
productivity frees some cropland area after 2030,
which becomes available for afforestation and naturalvegetation regeneration. We used these findings as abasis to engage with national stakeholders and experts tofurther refine our model and pathway for Ethiopia for the2020 FABLE Report.

133

MODELS AND SCENARIOS SHOW A SEACHANGE ON THE WAY
As with land-based projections, marine modelling scenarios
show that climate change and other human activities areposing serious risks to the conservation of marine life and thesustainability of fisheries in the 21st century and beyond.
William W. L. Cheung(Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries,
The University of British Columbia)

Relative to pre-industrial times, sea levels around the globe arerising and our oceans are warmer, more acidic and losing oxygen.
These changes are linked to greenhouse gas emissions from humanactivities and are predicted to continue into the 21st century 28.
More specifically, based on an ensemble of 10 Earth systemmodels, net primary production from phytoplanktons is projected
to decrease by 4-11% by the end of this century relative to 20062015 under the no mitigation, high greenhouse gas emissions
scenario 29. Given that this net primary production is the ultimate
source of energy supporting most marine food webs in the open
ocean, including deep-sea ecosystems, its decrease would reduce
ecosystem productivity and impact ecosystem functions. In
coastal regions, for example, in a 2oC warmer world relative topre-industrial levels 29, warming and sea level rise are projected toput sensitive ecosystems – like coral reefs, seagrass beds and kelp
forests, that support a vast diversity of marine life and important
ecosystem services such as fisheries – at a high to very high risk ofnegative impacts.
Climate change will impact the distribution and abundance offishes and invertebrates as their biology is closely related toenvironmental conditions such as temperature and oxygen level,
challenging the long-term conservation of marine biodiversity.
Exposed to multiple climatic and non-climatic hazards in theocean, many marine fishes and invertebrates, including thosethat are already under threat, are projected to be at risk of local,
and potentially global, extinction 30. Multiple marine species
and ecosystem models project that the global biomass of marine
invertebrates, fishes and non-fish vertebrates will decrease byaround 4.3% under a strong mitigation, low greenhouse gas
emissions scenario and 15% under a no mitigation, high emissions
scenario by the end of this century relative to 1986-2005 31;

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 134

with species also shifting their distributions by hundreds tothousands of kilometres from their current ranges.
Global decreases in ocean productivity, the falling biomass offishes and invertebrates, and shifts in species distributions resultin the high risk of impacts on many fisheries in the future. Global
fisheries models project large decreases in maximum fisheries
catch potential (a proxy of maximum sustainable yield) of 20-24%
by 2100 relative to 1986-2005, with more widespread declines
in the tropics, under the no mitigation scenario. Changes in theavailability of fishes under climate change are projected to havesubstantial ramifications for the economy, seafood security andlivelihoods of dependent human communities; translating, forexample, into a global decrease in seafood workers’ incomes and anincrease in households’ seafood expenditure 32. Increasing humanpopulation, economic wealth and consumption will drive a further
increase in demand for seafood, putting additional pressure on fishstocks and fisheries.
Models and scenarios for the sea highlight the importance ofclimate mitigation and the reduction of other human stressors likeoverfishing and plastic pollution, accompanied by local adaptation,
to secure the long-term conservation of marine biodiversity and thesustainability of fisheries.

An algal bloom in theBaltic sea captured by the Copernicus
Sentinel-2 mission satellites.

© European Space Agency (ESA)

135

MAKING CONNECTIONS FROM LANDTO SEAWe need an integrative understanding of land-sea
interactions to capture missing feedbacks and trade-offs inhuman impact scenarios.
Julia Blanchard(University of Tasmania),
Duncan Cameron(University of Sheffield)
and Richard Cottrell(University of California
Santa Barbara)

Land and sea ecosystems are intrinsically connected, but theselinks are often ignored in scenario modelling that looks at a rangeof possible futures of land-use change. It’s true that state-of-theart global land and sea use models both use complex combinationsof ‘big data’, often with shared input sources like remote sensing
and Earth system models. However, scenario modelling of changes
in human activities, in the sea and on land, is largely carried out
separately, with limited feedbacks to the connected ecosystems that
underpin them 33, 34.
We know that food production systems are major drivers of
biodiversity loss, both on land and in the sea, exemplifying thesehidden interconnections 35 – two examples are agricultural runoff into
coastal and marine ecosystems, and the use of wild-capture fisheries
for fertilisers and feed on land. Climate change creates feedbacks
among these linkages, as food production produces emissions that
impact the climate system, which in turn alters the environment,
habitats and biodiversity that support resilient food production.

© WWF / James Morgan

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 136

Shifting diets from land-based to more environmentally efficient
ocean-based protein has been proposed as one leverage point forclimate mitigation 36. Scenarios shifting towards marine diets, via
aquaculture growth, have been shown to spare land and marine
feed resources compared to business-as-usual practices 37.
However, the broader impacts of changes in food demand on
marine ecosystems are not well understood. Given the threats tobiodiversity already present in the ocean, care needs to be taken
to ensure any shift would not create perverse biodiversity outcomesor create inequities in food and nutrition 33, 38.
There are growing attempts to bridge these knowledge gaps;
however, much of the work addressing the land-sea interface has,as yet, only been carried out at regional catchment scales 39, 40.
Developments in global modelling of nutrient flows from a varietyof human activities on land to coastal systems 41 are promising, but
the links to ecosystem responses across the land-ocean continuum
are still missing. These critical gaps need to be accounted for if weare to understand and predict the consequences and trade-offs ofchanging human activities for the planet.
Climate change projections show that food production shocks
across sectors are increasing, and are likely to worsen as extreme
events such as marine heatwaves and drought become the ‘newnormal’ 42. What this means for the overall food system, andunderlying biodiversity and ecosystem processes, is not yet wellunderstood. Scaling up assessments of the environmental
impacts of food systems 43, by mapping synergies and trade-offs
of biodiversity protection on human well-being, could help us
to better understand the influence of feedbacks onsustainability pathways 44.

An aerial view of theAtlantic coastline in Gabon.

137

THE PATH AHEAD
The Living Planet Report 2020 is being published at a timeof global upheaval, yet its key message is something that has
not changed in decades: nature – our life-support system –is declining at a staggering rate. We know that the health ofpeople and that of our planet are increasingly intertwined;
the devastating forest fires of the past year and the ongoing
COVID-19 pandemic have made this undeniable.
The Bending the Curve modelling tells us that, withtransformational change, we can turn the tide of biodiversity
loss. It is easy to talk about transformational change, but how
will we, living in our complex, highly connected modern society,make it a reality? We know that it will take a global, collective
effort; that increased conservation efforts are key, along withchanges in how we produce and consume our food and energy.
Citizens, governments and business leaders around the globe
will need to be part of a movement for change with a scale,urgency and ambition never seen before.
We want you to be part of this movement. For ideas andinspiration, we invite you to explore our Voices for a Living
Planet supplement. We have invited thinkers and practitioners
from a range of fields in many countries to share their views on
how to bring about a healthy planet for people and nature.
Voices for a Living Planet complements the themes of the
Living Planet Report 2020 by reflecting a diversity of voices
and opinions from all over the globe. Covering ideas ranging
from human rights and moral philosophy to sustainable financeand business innovation, it provides a starting point for hopefulconversations, food for thought and ideas for a future in whichpeople and nature can thrive.
We hope it will inspire you to be part of the change.

Children walking in the Forest Landscape Restoration HQ and nursery in
Rukoki Sub-County, Kasese District, Rwenzori Mountains, Uganda.

WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 138

© WWF / Simon Rawles

139

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LIVING PLANETREPORT 2020
BENDING THE CURVE OF BIODIVERSITY LOSSEXPLORE MORE

A DEEP DIVE INTO
FRESHWATER
LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020

TOO HOT TO HANDLE:A DEEP DIVE INTO
BIODIVERSITY IN A
WARMING WORLD
LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020

VOICES FOR A
LIVING PLANETSPECIAL EDITION LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020

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Publication details
Published in September 2020 by WWF – World
Wide Fund for Nature (Formerly World WildlifeFund), Gland, Switzerland (“WWF”).
Any reproduction in full or in part of thispublication must be in accordance with the rules
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Recommended citation:
WWF (2020) Living Planet Report 2020 Bending the curve of biodiversity loss.
Almond, R.E.A., Grooten M. and Petersen, T. (Eds).
WWF, Gland, Switzerland.
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• LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020

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.

INT© 2020panda.org

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