(Commonwealth Union)_The World Wildlife Fund recently disclosed that there has been a decline of 69% in the wildlife population since 2018, where the ZSL monitored the status of over 5000 species. They also stated that this is a result of human activity such as deforestation, and exploitation of the environment which encourages the rise of global warming and climate change, causing global wildlife to enter a state of peril as more species become endangered.
“This serious drop tells us that nature is unravelling and the natural world is emptying,” said Andre Terry, director of conservation and policy at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL).
It was reported that the Latin American and Caribbean regions lost the most wildlife with a 94% decline in just the past five decades. A particular species, the pink river dolphins residing in the Brazilian Amazon are now endangered, having lost 64% of their kind from 1994 to 2016.
The director of science at WWF-UK said that as more wildlife moves towards the brink of endangerment, nature is in dire straits, and immediate action needs to be taken in order to preserve and sustain the wildlife.
Despite the critical condition global wildlife is facing, there is a sliver of hope as much animals have multiplied their species over the years. While the Eastern lowland gorilla population in Congo’s Kahuzi-Biega National Park fell by 80% due to hunting, the mountain gorilla population near Virunga National Park increased by from around 400 to 600 within a span of 8 years.
Wildlife activists and experts are concerned about the imminent decline in population stats of the wildlife as they know that only the animals which are able to sustain themselves will survive as most species become endangered, or head towards extinction.
In order to curb this crisis, and discuss regimes to be implemented in order to save the wildlife, a meeting will be held in Montreal this December where the delegation will appeal to rich nations to fund wildlife conservation programs.
