Biodiversity Report 2018

Living Planet Report released by the World Wildlife Fund for Nature documents the state of the earth in terms of biodiversity and indicates the raising demand on natural resources and its impact on nature and wildlife.
The report is said to reveal the health of the Earth.

World Wildlife Fund

• The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization
  founded in 1961, working in the field of wilderness preservation,
   and the reduction of human impact on the environment.
• HQ- Switzerland
  
  Living Planet Report
• Published every two years by WWF since 1998.
• It is based on a Living Planet Index and ecological footprint calculation.

Findings of the Report

• Earth witnessed the decline in mammals, birds, fish, reptiles,
   amphibians between 1970-2014. Data covers over 16700 population
  belonging to 4000 species.
• Destruction of natural habitats is the biggest cause of wildlife losses.
  Three-quarters of land on Earth is affected by human activities.
• Killing for food is another major cause for wildlife losses.
  300 mammal species have already being eaten into extinction.
• Major habitats suffering are water bodies like rivers, ponds etc.
  Oceans are massively overfished - more than half being industrially fished.
• Wildlife population in rivers, lakes has fallen to 83% due to agricultural
  activities and increased number of dams.
• Ocean acidification is occurring at a rate not seen in the last 300 million years.
• 50% of shallow water corals have estimated to have been lost in the past 30 years.
• 89% loss in vertebrate population in South America and Central America due to
  deforestation.
• A fifth of the Amazon has disappeared in just 50 years.
• The area of minimally disturbed forests has
  declined by 92 million hectares between 2000-2013.
• Humans are responsible for releasing 100 billion tonnes of carbon
  into the ecosystem every 10 years.
• According to the Report, around 70,000 medicinal plant
   species have also been affected.
• Human activities associated with production and processing
  have an enormous effect on biodiversity.
  Agriculture accounts for a lion’s share in the conversion of forest land,
  a decrease in forest area impact both plant and animals.