EU must push farmers towards sustainable farming, says WWF

The Earth’s wildlife populations have shrunk by a “catastrophic” 73 per cent in just 50 years, according to a leading scientific assessment. 

Using data from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), WWF’s biennial Living Planet Report charts the unravelling in the average size of monitored species between 1970 to 2020. 

With the next five years “crucial for life on Earth”, it calls on the EU to do more to protect vital habitats and biodiversity. 

“The findings of this report are alarming, and EU consumption continues to be a major driver of global biodiversity loss, particularly in critical ecosystems like the Amazon, which is nearing an irreversible tipping point,” says Anke Schulmeister-Oldenhove, forests manager from the WWF European Policy Office.

Last week, the European Commission postponed its deforestation law by a year, delaying a measure that was meant to wean out land clearances from the bloc’s supply chains. 

“How much more forest must we lose before policymakers grasp the urgency of immediate action?” Schulmeister-Oldenhove asks. 

Which wildlife species are most in peril?

ZSL’s Living Planet Index includes almost 35,000 population trends of 5,495 species. It reveals an average 73 per cent decline in vertebrate wildlife populations – mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish – between 1970 to 2020.

Freshwater populations have suffered the most serious declines, falling by 85 per cent in 50 years. WWF traces this loss to dams and other habitat incursions that can block the migration routes of freshwater fish, for example. 

WWF’s 2022 report calculated that population sizes had declined by 69 per cent on average over the same time period. But the two studies are not directly comparable as they contain different sets of species, the NGO explains.

In terms of regions, the steepest declines have occurred in Latin America – a staggering 95 per cent drop – and Africa, with a 76 per cent decrease in wildlife populations. By comparison, Europe ‘only’ registered a 35 per cent decline. 

But the 1970 baseline is important to bear in mind, since humans’ destructive impact on nature was already apparent in Europe prior to the seventies. Hence there is less of a negative trend.

The 15th edition of the Living Planet Report draws particular attention to deforestation in the Amazon, where fire outbreaks reached their highest level in 14 years this August. 

The dieback of the Amazon rainforest and the mass die-off of coral reefs are tipping points that would create far-reaching shockwaves impacting food security and livelihoods, it warns.

How can the EU tackle biodiversity loss?

“The new Living Planet Report sends a stark warning: the clock is ticking and our biodiversity is hanging in the balance. Luckily, saving nature is an important ally in the relentless fight against climate change and for this the European Green Deal is crucial,” says Alex Mason, head of climate & energy at WWF’s European Policy Office.

WWF is calling on the EU to enforce all Green Deal initiatives concerning conservation, food, energy and finance systems, as well as the recently approved Nature Restoration Law – which aims to restore at least 20 per cent of the region’s land and sea areas by 2030.

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The report also urges the EU to take greater care of its impact abroad. Food production is the primary driver of habitat loss and is dramatically depleting water resources, it finds, accounting for 70 per cent of water use. 

“Here is yet another science-based report telling us the same story about our food system – a story we’ve ignored for far too long,” says Giulia Riedo, sustainable farming officer at the WWF European Policy Office. “In Europe, we have treated nature as an infinite resource, and we are now seeing the consequences through the increasing impacts of floods and droughts on our produce.”

They add that the new European Commission, which was formed after June’s Europe-wide elections, must reform the foundations of the Common Agricultural Policy and incentivise farmers to transition to sustainable farming, as “the only path to a thriving future.”

WWF will be bringing its nature-related demands to the biodiversity COP16 in Colombia later this month, and the climate COP29 in Baku in November. 

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