The number of wildlife species is now the half of what it was 40 years ago.Various species were decimated by humans who kill them for or massively destroy their habitats. These conclusions were made by scientists of theWorld Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Zoological Society of London.

This drastic decline was found after analysing 10,000 populations of 3,000 species in total. The scientists used this data to create LPI - Living Planet Index, which shows the state of the 45,000 known vertebrates.

The report of WWF makes the concerning conclusion that the average global rate of consumption nowadays means that the total human population would actually need about 1.5 planet Earths to sustain it.  However, four planets would be required for the US levels of consumption. UK levels would require 2.5 Earths.

The most powerful decline among animals species happens in freshwater ecosystems. Since 1970, such animal species have decreased by the horrifying 75%. Rivers are the actual bottom of aliving system according toDave Tickner, the chief freshwater adviser of WWF. 

Not only pollution, but also dams and abstraction of water ruin the freshwater systems. In a world scale, there are over 45,000 major dams constructed with a height of 15m or more.A major problem is that the population of the Earth started to consume more water. During the last century, the population has risen four times, but the water use – seven times. 

The good news is that conservation measures sometimes take effect and species’ recoveries have been seen. For examples, otters in England that were near extinct increased their numbers because of conservation efforts.
The total statistics is quite disturbing. The number of animals living on Earth has decreased by 40% since 1970. This concerns various species - from the forest elephants of central Africa, through the Hoolock gibbon in Bangladesh and to the European snakes. For all of them, the destruction of their habitat is almost fatal. Still, intensive conservation measures could turn this decline around. This is just what happened with the wild tigers of Nepal.

Marine animal populations suffer at the same extent. Turtles have the biggest problems to survive. Turtle hunting, the massive destruction of their nesting grounds and their catching in fishing nets cause the falling of turtle numbers fall by 80%. 

Some birds species’ populations also suffer a lot. For example, the number of the grey partridges in the UK has decreased by 50% since 1970. This was caused by the intensification of farming. Also, the curlew sandpipers’ population in Australia has decreased by 80% for a period of 20 years to 2005.

As it could be expected, the most significant declines in animal species’ population take place in developing and low-income nations. On the other side, the conservation measure which are being taken by rich nations lead

to some improvements. It should be remembered, however, that the big wildlife declines in rich countries already happened long centuries ago.