Wildlife Population Sizes Decline 73% On Average, But Tiger, Elephant, Turtle & Tuna Recoveries Offer Hope

The Living Planet Index (LPI), produced by ZSL (Zoological Society of London), includes 35,803 population trends of 5,790 vertebrate species from 1970 to 2022. The report notes the strongest decline is in freshwater ecosystems (-85%), followed by terrestrial (-69%) and then marine ecosystems (-59%).

Habitat loss and degradation are the most frequently reported threats affecting monitored wildlife populations, followed by overexploitation, climate change, pollution, invasive species and disease. These threats are, in turn, driven by broader systemic failures across the food, energy and finance systems.

“The Living Planet Report documents a sobering decline. But it also points to a powerful force we can harness to reverse that decline. That force is nature's capacity to recover when we act with urgency and scale,” said Carter Roberts, President and CEO of WWF-US.“Tigers, green turtles, southern African elephants and Atlantic and Pacific bluefin tuna are recovering because of conservationists' and local communities' unwavering commitment to safeguarding the species that mean so much to us. Nature loss looms large. And so does our capacity to reverse it. Our work ahead lies with transforming how we grow our food, how we power our lives, and where we make our smartest investments.”

While the overall percentage change is consistent with the previous Living Planet Report, the updated assessment incorporates additional population data and a longer time series, reinforcing the continued scale of biodiversity loss. This aligns with previously reported estimates, and combined with other metrics, shows the scale of nature's decline.

Although the overall trend is negative due to the magnitude of the declining trends, half of the populations included in the LPI are stable or increasing. The report also highlights recoveries in several populations, which demonstrates that targeted conservation interventions can deliver proven results. However, the declines registered by the LPI and other biodiversity indicators cannot be reversed by conservation efforts alone.

“While fifty-two years of data show us that monitored wildlife populations have on average declined 73%, it also shows that nature can rebound when we take action,” said WWF Chief Scientist Rebecca Shaw.“Half the populations we track are stable or increasing, and species that were in freefall a generation ago are fighting their way back. That makes recovery more than a hope. It's a documented, repeatable outcome of sustained action, and the science now shows that the same self-reinforcing dynamics driving collapse can drive recovery, if we build the conditions for it.”

While environmental tipping points are often discussed in the context of risks, such as the collapse of coral reefs, the destruction of North American pine forests, or the loss of the Amazon rainforest, the same dynamics can also drive rapid positive change. The Living Planet Report includes research by the University of Exeter which finds that a positive tipping point can happen when we do the work to help a system cross a threshold into a healthier state, and the change becomes self-reinforcing – getting faster, cheaper and harder to reverse.

The energy industry has already passed a positive tipping point: solar is now the cheapest source of new electricity in most countries, though the transition still isn't moving fast enough and progress varies sharply by country and sector. Food and agriculture show early signs of approaching a tipping point, with people and organizations worldwide pushing nature-positive production, sustainable trade and consumption, healthier diets, and less food loss and waste. The finance system is still in the early stages of building toward a positive tipping point, with the sector needing to work rapidly toward stopping the financing of harmful activities, valuing nature and climate as material risks, creating regulatory certainty, and closing an annual $942 billion biodiversity finance gap.

These systemic shifts can be achieved if countries focus on delivering the goals they have agreed to. With UN conferences on biodiversity and climate taking place in the next two months, governments have a vital opportunity to accelerate from ambition to implementation.

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2026 Living Planet Report