The WWF is run at a local level by the following offices...
- WWF Global
- Adria
- Argentina
- Armenia
- AsiaPacific
- Australia
- Austria
- Azerbaijan
- Belgium
- Bhutan
- Bolivia
- Borneo
- Brazil
- Bulgaria
- Cambodia
- Cameroon
- Canada
- Caucasus
- Central African Republic
- Central America
- Chile
- China
- Colombia
- Croatia
- Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Denmark
- Ecuador
- European Policy Office
- Finland
Our News
WWF published the 15th edition of WWF’s flagship publication, the Living Planet Report (LPR) - our planet is in peril
NAIROBI, Kenya (10 October 2024) — Africa’s biodiversity is under threat as WWF’s Living Planet Report 2024 reveals significant declines in the average size of populations of wildlife across the continent. According to the report, Africa has experienced a decline of 76% in the size of monitored vertebrate wildlife populations between 1970 and 2020, driven primarily by habitat loss, overexploitation, pollution, and the impacts of climate change. This alarming trend highlights the urgent need for transformative action to safeguard Africa's natural ecosystems and the livelihoods that depend on them. The decline globally is at 73%.
The report warns that the continued degradation of Africa’s ecosystems could push the region past critical tipping points without immediate interventions. As ecosystems cross these thresholds, their ability to support both wildlife and human livelihoods becomes compromised, with severe consequences for food security, water availability, and climate resilience.
Martin Kabaluapa, Regional Director for the Congo Basin at WWF, said: "Africa’s biodiversity is calling for urgent action. The interlinked crises of nature loss and climate change are pushing African wildlife and ecosystems to their limits, with global tipping points threatening to destabilize entire ecosystems. The catastrophic consequences of losing some of Africa’s most precious species, from forest elephants to gorillas and ecosystems, would reverberate across the world."
The report offers some hope, reporting that Mountain Gorillas in the Greater Virunga Landscape of Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, whose numbers had plummeted, have rebounded by 3 percent between 2010 and 2016 due to successful conservation efforts.
Alice Ruhweza, Senior Director for Policy Influence and Engagement at WWF stated: “We must realise that conservation by itself is not enough to bend the curve, and we need a systems shift. However, we have the tools, the knowledge, and the opportunity to reverse these trends if we act now”. Ruhweza said, “it is critical we scale up nature-based solutions across Africa to address the interconnected biodiversity loss and climate change crises. Reforestation, wetland restoration, and agroforestry projects not only help to preserve biodiversity but also enhance livelihoods by providing jobs, improving food security, and increasing resilience to climate change,” she added.
The international biodiversity and climate summits taking place this year – COP16 and COP29 – are an opportunity for countries to rise to the scale of the challenge. WWF calls for countries to produce and implement more ambitious national nature and climate plans (NBSAPs and NDCs) that include measures to reduce global overconsumption, halt and reverse domestic and imported biodiversity loss, and cut emissions – all equitably. WWF urges governments to unlock greater public and private funding to allow action at scale and to better align their climate, nature and sustainable development policies and actions.
African countries have already committed to halting and reversing nature loss under the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) and tackling climate change through the Paris Agreement. Yet, the LPR warns that national biodiversity strategies and action plans(NBSAPs) are falling short, with critical tipping points like the degradation of coral reefs, savannah ecosystems, and rainforests still looming.
ENDS
© WWF International
Back cover LPR 2024
© © Janos _ Adobe Stock
African Forest Elephants
© zahorec _ Shutterstock_Full Image
Forest Elephant
© WWF International
Logging, deforestation