Researchers about alarming WWF report: ’We must act now’

The Living Planet Report published by WWF on 13 October shows well-documented evidence that humanity has far exceeded our planet's safe limits. The second part of the report offers the prospect of solutions. "We need to change the root causes of environmental degradation," state Francisco Alpizar and Jeanne Nel of Wageningen University & Research in their contribution to the report. The report paints a dark picture of the state of nature. For instance, wildlife populations - mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish - have declined by 69 per cent on average in less than 50 years. Freshwater species populations worldwide have even shrunk by an average of 81 per cent. Climate change, deforestation, habitat loss, overfishing and other human activities are behind this.