NewsA new report reveals “catastrophic” declines of animals worldwide — but is...

A new report reveals “catastrophic” declines of animals worldwide — but is it accurate?

The latest health check on wildlife is in, and it’s not pretty. A new report by two of the world’s leading environmental groups reveals that the average size of wildlife populations worldwide has shrunk dramatically, by what the report calls a “catastrophic” 73 percent in the last 50 years.

The Living Planet Report, published by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), found that creatures living in rivers and lakes, such as the Amazon river dolphin, have experienced the most severe declines. Populations of these freshwater species have declined by an average of 85 percent, according to the Living Planet Index (LPI), a tool for measuring wildlife populations on which the report is based. Across the animal kingdom, meanwhile, wildlife populations are vanishing fastest in Latin America and the Caribbean — part of the globe that’s home to a tremendous diversity of life. The research does not include invertebrates such as insects and snails.

Losing wild animals isn’t good for anyone. Bats eat insect pests and lower the use of pesticides, yet many of them are imperiled. Parrotfish, which have declined in some regions, can improve the health of coral reefs that safeguard coastal communities. All kinds of birds and mammals help pollinate plants and spread seeds throughout the forest, sustaining forests and the rainfall they generate; many of them are vanishing, too.

“This is not just about wildlife,” Daudi Sumba, WWF International’s chief conservation officer, said on a press call Monday unveiling the report. “It’s about the essential ecosystems that sustain human life.”

World Wildlife Fund and the Zoological Society of London.

The new report is an alarming status check on the state of our planet, and the headline numbers it reveals will likely be cited in countless news and government reports. The Living Planet Index is one of the key metrics used to track global progress in efforts to conserve the environment.

But … is it accurate?

Coming up with simple figures to describe the state of the world’s wildlife is inherently difficult, but more than half a dozen scientists told me that the methods used to calculate the index may cause it to overstate wildlife declines, and perhaps significantly so. Some even called it misleading. One researcher voiced concerns that if leading environmental groups exaggerate wildlife declines, it could ultimately erode trust among the public, making action on a very real crisis that much harder to achieve.

While there’s no question that biodiversity is in decline, growing criticism of WWF’s estimation casts doubt on the scale of loss — or at least on science’s ability to accurately measure it.

Scientists have poked holes in WWF’s key figure

Before digging into the report, it’s important to reiterate: There is indeed a crisis of biodiversity loss. This is unequivocal. Coral reefs are overheating and dying en masse. North America has lost some 3 billion birds.

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