The WWF’s Living Planet Report (LPR) is the world’s leading science-based analysis on the health of the Earth and the impact of human activity. The ninth biennial publication released in May, reviews the cumulative pressures humans are putting on the planet and the consequent decline in the health of the forests, rivers and oceans. Its key finding is that humanity’s demands are exceeding the planet’s capacity to sustain us.

The report concludes that biodiversity has declined globally by 28 percent between 1970 and 2008. In the tropics, the situation is more than twice as bad, with a decline of biodiversity of around 60 percent. The loss of biodiversity has many critical impacts including reduced carbon storage capacity, less freshwater and diminished fisheries.

Since 1996, the demand on natural resources has doubled. We currently use the equivalent of 1.5 planets to support human activities and in a business as usual scenario, by 2030, it is estimated that we will need two Earths to support human activity.

Wealthy countries are largely to blame for the state of the planet as they have a footprint which is five times greater than low income countries. Even though richer regions have a much larger environmental impact than low income areas, the poor suffer disproportionately from declining biodiversity.

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