since 1970, Latin America has suffered serious losses in its biodiversity

First modification: 10/13/2022 – 16:56

Although every day the world witnesses and suffers the consequences of damage to the environment, for many governments and circles of power this struggle of the degrading human footprint on nature is not yet a priority. This crisis that is mentioned so much, but not effectively addressed, deals a blow of reality when the alarming figures are detailed.

Such is the case of the diagnosis revealed by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), an independent NGO that studies biodiversity thanks to a network that includes a hundred nations.

The document details that South America and the Caribbean, two robust regions in the world in terms of biodiversity, are the ones that have lost the greatest mass in the period 1970-2018, with an average of 94%. It refers to mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish, especially freshwater.

The work identifies ten high priority areas for risk mitigation, three of them in Latin America. These are the Amazon basin, the Atlantic forest (located in Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina) and the north of the Andes to Panama and Costa Rica.

The Living Planet Report highlights the approximate 69% population decline of all five classes of animals globally and highlights countries like Colombia -severely threatened by deforestation- as one of the possible strongholds to stop the loss of nature.

These conclusions expose the urgency to stop the “unsustainable use of resources” that deepens the climate and biodiversity crises. The WWF pointed out that they should be treated together.

In its analysis, the NGO urged world leaders to “assume ambitious and binding commitments” at the next COP15 on Biodiversity, which will be held next December in Canada.

“You have an opportunity to restore our broken relationship with the natural world and deliver a healthier, more sustainable future for all with an ambitious nature-positive global biodiversity deal,” said Marco Lambertini, Director General of WWF International.

A fight in which we are all involved

However, the claim for the preservation of the environment exceeds the States and is also a civil responsibility, they emphasize in their conclusion, and they also call on companies and the public to take transformative measures.

The specialists involved in the preparation of the report point out that the situation can be alleviated with conservation and restoration work, the production and consumption of food in a sustainable way and a sudden decarbonization.

The decline in freshwater populations was the largest globally, at 83%. This item includes corals, half of which have been damaged, and which affected a quarter of marine species.

The responsibilities for the profound degradation of terrestrial, marine and freshwater systems are changes in land use, overexploitation of plants and animals, climate change, pollution and invasive alien species.

For this study, around 32,000 populations of 5,230 species were monitored, becoming the most exhaustive balance that the WWF has carried out. Within the observed trends, changes in ecosystems are denoted.

The measurements were taken with the Living Planet Index (LPI), which involves monitoring the abundance of species and measures the success of conservation policies.

WWF is an organization with a global network active in almost 100 countries, whose mission is to stop the degradation of the planet’s natural environment.