Since 1970, surveyed vertebrate populations worldwide have declined by an average of 69 percent, the conservation organization WWF said on the occasion of its annual assessment of endangered species published Thursday.
The International Red List of Threatened Species now lists more than 42,100 animal and plant species as endangered — nearly 30 percent of all recorded species. For example, the world’s largest reindeer population in the wild fell from 417,000 in 2014 to 250,000 animals.
2022 was also not a good year for gliding in Europe: according to the new Red List, more than a third – 314 of the 890 species – are threatened by land use change, pesticide use and the climate crisis. The white rhinoceros is also endangered. In the past nine years, stocks in Africa have fallen from 20,600 to nearly 16,000 due to poaching.
It was also a bad year for the emperor penguin: in the summer it was missed to designate the largest penguin species as a specially protected species. According to the WWF, with current greenhouse gas emissions, between 80 and 100 percent of all known emperor penguin colonies are at risk of disappearing by 2100.
Also in 2022, the fish of the Oder were among the big losers. Thousands of young fish died in the summer fish kill. The dugongs are also in danger of extinction: there are only less than 250 adults off the East African coast, less than 900 off New Caledonia, and in China manatees are said to be functionally extinct.
Nevertheless, according to the nature conservation organization, successes have also been achieved in 2022. For example, commercially traded shark and ray species will be better protected in the future. International trade in them is only allowed if it does not endanger stocks.
More tigers are roaming Asia again: 355 individuals of the endangered big cats are back in Nepal – almost three times more than estimated in 2009. Stocks in Bhutan, Russia, China and the tiger-rich country India recovered well, according to the information.
According to the WWF, the Spix’s macaws celebrated the comeback of the year in their Brazilian homeland. Habitat destruction and illegal trade left only 55 of these parrots in captivity in the early 2000s. Thanks to a breeding program there are now about 290 animals again.
Wild bantengrunds, which are considered extinct, have also been observed in a Thai national park; in Australia, the number of humpback whales has increased from 1,500 to 40,000 to 65,000. And according to the WWF, more hawksbill turtle nests have been found in the US and the Cape Verde Islands than in decades.
“If we continue to destroy our nature at this rate, we humans will also be among the big losers,” said WWF board member Christoph Heinrich. The World Convention on Nature recently adopted in Montreal gives hope for an end to the species crisis. The implementation should now work. “We won’t get a second chance to save our planet,” Heinrich warned.
(SDA)