Wild species and the ecosystems they form are declining on land, in fresh water and at sea: monitored vertebrate populations shrank by 73% on average between 1970 and 2022, and 49,505 of the species assessed for the IUCN Red List are threatened with extinction.
Updated October 13, 2026. Written from the sources listed below, not independently peer-reviewed.
By how much did monitored wildlife populations shrink on average between 1970 and 2022?
73%
Average decline in monitored wildlife populations
Average change in the size of 35,803 monitored populations of 5,790 vertebrate species between 1970 and 2022 (Living Planet Index). It is not the share of all animals lost, and about half of the monitored populations are stable or increasing.
Data year 2022. Source: WWF, 2026
49,505
Species threatened with extinction
Species classed as threatened among the 175,909 assessed for the IUCN Red List, as of the July 2026 update. Only assessed species are counted, and the total changes as more species are assessed.
Data year 2026. Source: International Union for Conservation of Nature, 2026
17.6%
Land in protected and conserved areas
Share of land and inland waters covered by protected and conserved areas in 2024, against the 30% agreed for 2030. In the ocean and coastal areas, coverage was 8.4%.
Data year 2024. Source: IUCN, on the report prepared by UNEP-WCMC in collaboration with IUCN, 2024
Unit: index (1970 = 100)
Both values come from the Living Planet Report 2026. The index is set to 100 in 1970, and the 2022 value expresses the reported average decline of 73% across 35,803 monitored populations of 5,790 vertebrate species. It is an average of population trends, not a count of animals, and about half of the populations are stable or increasing. Only the two reported values are shown; the path between them is not plotted.
Under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, governments agreed in December 2022 to conserve 30% of the world's land and seas by 2030. The Protected Planet Report 2024 found that protected and conserved areas covered 17.6% of land and inland waters and 8.4% of the ocean, a rise of less than half a percentage point in each since 2020. Reaching the target would require coverage to roughly double on land and triple at sea by 2030. Quality lags further behind: only 8.5% of the world's land is both protected and well connected. Governments have also agreed to mobilise at least US$200 billion a year for biodiversity from all sources by 2030.
Freshwater populations have declined most: by 85% on average between 1970 and 2022, compared with 69% for land-based and 59% for marine populations in the Living Planet Index.
Source: WWF, 2026More than 40% of amphibian species, almost a third of reef-forming corals and more than a third of all marine mammals are threatened with extinction.
Source: Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, 2019Between 100 and 300 million people face a higher risk of floods and hurricanes because coastal habitats that protected them have been lost.
Source: Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, 2019Indigenous Peoples and local communities manage or hold tenure rights over about 40% of protected areas and intact ecosystems across 87 countries, so decisions about conservation directly affect their lands and livelihoods.
Source: Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, 2024Each country is shaded by its latest available value, so you can see where the gap is widest. Hover or tap a country, search for one, or open the full table.
Loading country values…
Values in index (0–1).
Red List Index for mammals, birds, amphibians, cycads and corals (SDG indicator 15.5.1): 1 means none of these species currently faces extinction risk and 0 would mean all are extinct, so darker shades mark countries whose species are closer to extinction. Latest year available per country, currently 2025 everywhere (years can differ); each species counts in proportion to the share of its range inside the country, which is why many small island states have the lowest values.
Source: BirdLife International and IUCN (SDG indicator 15.5.1), via UN SDG Global Database and Our World in Data. Latest year available per country; years differ.
Values load from Our World in Data. Simplified Natural Earth borders; they imply no position on disputed territories.
Instead of one “percent solved” score, DO GOOD rates three separate dimensions. A problem can have mature solutions that still reach too few people. These ratings are an editorial reading of the sources on this page, not a measured index.
Has the situation improved in the real world?
LowNature is still in decline: monitored vertebrate populations shrank by 73% on average between 1970 and 2022, and freshwater populations by 85%. Local recoveries show that action works, but they have not reversed the global trend.
How mature and validated are the available solutions?
ModerateProtected areas, recovery programmes for individual species, control of invasive predators and community-led land management all have documented successes, such as the numbat's improvement from Endangered to Near Threatened. Results depend heavily on management and enforcement, and on tackling drivers such as climate change and land-use change that lie outside conservation itself.
How widely are effective solutions actually used?
LowProtected and conserved areas cover 17.6% of land and 8.4% of the ocean, well short of the 30% agreed for 2030, and less than 5% of land is covered by protected areas whose management effectiveness has been assessed.
Independent indicators, from population trends to extinction risk, point in the same direction. But they rest mostly on vertebrates and a few other well-studied groups, the Living Planet Index is an average that hides large differences between populations, and governments preparing the first global review of the framework have raised concerns about missing and regionally unbalanced national data.
The 2026 Living Planet Index, with more population data and longer monitoring, confirms the same 73% average decline as the 2024 edition. Half of the monitored populations are stable or increasing, but the size of the declines outweighs them, and there is no sign yet of the turnaround the 2030 targets aim for.
Biodiversity is the variety of life on Earth, from the genes within species to the species themselves and the ecosystems they form. People rely on it for food, clean water, medicines and a stable climate, and economic activities that depend moderately or highly on nature generate more than half of global GDP, about $58 trillion a year. Yet it is declining on land, in fresh water and at sea. The 2019 IPBES Global Assessment estimated that around 1 million animal and plant species are threatened with extinction, many of them within decades, and found that human activity has significantly altered three-quarters of the land and about 66% of the marine environment. Newer data show no turnaround: wild vertebrate populations monitored for the Living Planet Index shrank by 73% on average between 1970 and 2022, and the IUCN Red List now classes 49,505 of the 175,909 species it has assessed as threatened.
Globally, the largest direct causes are, in order, changes in how land and sea are used, direct exploitation of plants and animals, climate change, pollution and invasive alien species. More than a third of the world's land surface and nearly 75% of freshwater resources are now used for crops or livestock. IPBES traces these pressures to deeper causes: people's disconnection from nature, the unequal concentration of power and wealth, and a focus on short-term material gains. The consequences reach people directly. Land degradation has reduced the productivity of 23% of the world's land, up to US$577 billion of annual crop output is at risk from the loss of pollinators, and 100–300 million people face a higher risk of floods and hurricanes because coastal habitats are disappearing. Monitored freshwater populations have fallen most steeply, while on land held or managed by Indigenous Peoples and local communities the declines have on average been less severe or avoided.
No single number captures the state of nature, so global assessments combine indicators of population size, extinction risk and the responses meant to halt decline. Biodiversity falls under SDG 15 (Life on Land) and SDG 14 (Life Below Water); SDG target 15.5 calls for urgent action to halt the loss of biodiversity and prevent the extinction of threatened species. The most widely used measures are:
Population trends: the Living Planet Index
Produced by ZSL (Zoological Society of London) and published by WWF, the index follows how the size of monitored populations of vertebrates (mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians) has changed since 1970; the 2026 edition draws on 35,803 population trends of 5,790 species. It averages the relative change of each population, so a 73% fall describes the average trend across monitored populations, not the share of all wild animals that has disappeared. About half of the populations are stable or increasing.
Extinction risk: the IUCN Red List
Experts assess species against standard criteria such as population size, rate of decline and range, and place each in a category from Least Concern to Extinct. Species classed as Vulnerable, Endangered or Critically Endangered count as threatened. As of July 2026, 175,909 species had been assessed. IPBES estimates that around 1 million species are threatened, far more than the number IUCN has assessed so far, and the count of threatened species rises partly because more species are assessed with each update.
Change in risk over time: the Red List Index
For groups whose species have been assessed more than once (mammals, birds, amphibians, cycads and corals), the assessments are combined into an index that runs from 1, meaning no species faces a current risk of extinction, to 0, meaning all are extinct. It is the indicator for SDG target 15.5 and is shown by country on the map on this page.
Protection: protected and conserved area coverage
Progress on the main area-based response is tracked as the share of land and sea in protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures, compiled by UNEP-WCMC with IUCN in the Protected Planet Report. Coverage shows how much area is set aside, not how well it is managed or whether species inside it are recovering.
What works
Protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures can keep habitats from being converted or overused. By 2024, 51 countries and territories had already placed more than 30% of their land under protection or conservation, and 31 had done so at sea.
Limits
Area alone says little about results: only 8.5% of the world's land is both protected and well connected, a third of the areas most important for biodiversity lie entirely outside protected and conserved areas, and less than 5% of land is covered by protected areas whose management effectiveness has been assessed.
What works
Indigenous Peoples and local communities manage or hold tenure rights over about 40% of protected areas and intact ecosystems across 87 countries, and IPBES has found that nature's decline has on average been less severe or avoided on land they hold or manage. Securing their rights and leadership keeps large areas of habitat intact.
Limits
Recognised rights do not by themselves stop outside pressures such as mining, logging or farm expansion, and communities often lack the funding and legal support to defend their land.
What works
Removing the main threat to a species, combined with breeding and reintroduction, can reverse its decline. In Western Australia, baiting and predator-proof fencing against feral cats and foxes, captive breeding and translocations helped the numbat improve from Endangered to Near Threatened; there are now 2,000–3,000 numbats.
Limits
Such programmes are slow, costly and work one species at a time. The numbat still occupies only 0.04% of its original range, and predation by feral cats and foxes was the leading cause of decline for five Australian marsupials confirmed as extinct in the same Red List update.
What works
Governments spent an estimated $1.4–3.3 trillion in 2022 on explicit subsidies to sectors that drive nature's decline, more than the estimated biodiversity funding gap of $598–824 billion a year. Removing or redirecting these subsidies would reduce pressure on ecosystems and could free money for conservation.
Limits
The subsidies support farmers, fishers and energy users, so reform is politically difficult and must protect poorer households. Public funding for environmentally harmful subsidies has risen by 55% since 2021 rather than falling.
What works
Marine protected areas that exclude mining can shield fragile deep-sea habitats: over 30 species living at hydrothermal vents are assessed as Least Concern because they live in protected areas where mining is not allowed.
Limits
Such protection is the exception rather than the rule: 62% of the world's endemic vent molluscs, 125 of 201 species, are at risk from deep-sea mining for minerals, which can smother animals under sediment plumes.
Promising, but not proven at scale. The stage shows how far each approach has come; it is not a recommendation.
Traces of DNA in water or soil, automated sound recorders, camera traps and satellite images can detect species and habitat change faster and more cheaply than field surveys alone, and could help fill gaps in national data. Methods are not yet standardised, and reference libraries needed to identify many groups, such as insects and fungi, are incomplete.
At COP16 in Cali in 2024, governments set up a mechanism for sharing the benefits from digital sequence information, the genetic data from nature used in products such as medicines and crops, including a new Cali Fund. Whether it will raise significant sums is unclear; at negotiations in February 2026, several Parties stressed that creating new funds does not by itself increase the money available.
Creditors cancel or restructure part of a country's debt in return for commitments to fund conservation. Governments negotiating biodiversity finance in February 2026 listed such swaps among instruments to explore. Deals are complex and slow to arrange, and their effect on biodiversity depends on how the freed money is governed and monitored.
Reporting frameworks ask companies and financial institutions to assess and disclose how they depend on and affect nature, so that risks to and from ecosystems enter investment decisions. Reporting is voluntary in most places, and reliable metrics for a company's impact on biodiversity are still being developed.
Implementation gap
About $135 billion a year is spent on biodiversity conservation, while IPBES estimates that $722–967 billion a year is needed, leaving a gap of $598–824 billion a year.
Coordination gap
The sectors most responsible for nature's decline cause estimated external costs of $10.7 trillion a year that are not reflected in market prices, so clearing or overusing nature often pays better than protecting it. IPBES estimates that delaying action by even a decade would roughly double its cost.
Coordination gap
The framework's goal of raising international biodiversity finance to at least US$20 billion a year by 2025 has passed, and at negotiations in February 2026 it received little attention. Developing countries continue to press for the money promised under the Convention, while several Parties noted that new funds do not automatically mean more finance.
Implementation gap
Less than 5% of the world's land and 1.3% of the marine realm are covered by protected areas whose management effectiveness has been assessed, and governance has been assessed for only 0.2% of coverage on land. Many areas count towards targets without evidence that they protect species.
Knowledge gap
Global indicators rest mostly on vertebrates and a few other well-studied groups. Governments preparing the first global review of the framework, due at COP17 in Yerevan in October 2026, have raised concerns about missing and regionally unbalanced national data; seventh national reports were due at the end of February 2026.
Technology gap
Predation by feral cats and foxes was the leading cause of decline for the five Australian marsupials newly confirmed as extinct in 2026. Baiting and predator-proof fencing protect animals only in limited areas, as the recovering numbat's 0.04% of its original range shows, and controlling these predators across whole landscapes remains an unsolved problem.
Unresolved questions, not vetted breakthroughs. Answering any of them would change what is possible.
How close are ecosystems such as coral reefs and the Amazon rainforest to thresholds beyond which they shift into a degraded state that is hard to reverse, and can such thresholds be detected in time to act?
Most species, especially insects, fungi and deep-sea life, have never been assessed. How fast are these groups declining, and do trends in well-studied vertebrates represent them?
Which combinations of protection, land rights, finance and management actually improve outcomes for species, and how can area targets such as 30% by 2030 be tied to measured results rather than coverage alone?
As climate change shifts where species can live, will today's protected areas still hold the species they were created for, and how should networks and corridors be planned to allow species to move?
Bird counts, butterfly surveys and biodiversity recording apps collect observations that researchers use to track species. Taking part adds to the data that are missing for many places and groups.
Native plants, fewer pesticides and a patch of garden or balcony left to grow wild can support insects and birds locally. The effect is small but real, and it adds up when neighbours or a local council do the same.
Farming and fishing are major drivers of biodiversity loss. Wasting less food, and looking for credible sourcing information on products such as beef, soy, palm oil and seafood, reduces demand that drives habitat conversion; labels vary in quality.
Governments have submitted national plans and reports under the global biodiversity framework. Asking your representatives how the national plan is funded and how progress is measured helps keep those commitments visible.
Ideas visitors sent in for this challenge, read by the DO GOOD team and pinned with permission. The colour shows the kind of contribution.
Loading the board…
What happens next
The DO GOOD team reads every idea and sorts it by colour: solution, research question, existing project, evidence or local action.
If you agree to publication, it can be pinned to this board. Contact details are never shown.
Pinned ideas are not reviewed by scientists and are not endorsed by DO GOOD.
This page is a research overview. DO GOOD does not run a dedicated programme on this challenge, and donations are not earmarked for it. You can join our volunteer work and outreach.
WWF (World Wildlife Fund), with the Living Planet Index produced by ZSL (Zoological Society of London), published 2026
Report page for the 2026 edition, published on 7 October 2026. Source of the 73% average decline in the size of monitored vertebrate populations between 1970 and 2022, the 35,803 population trends of 5,790 species, the declines by ecosystem (freshwater 85%, terrestrial 69%, marine 59%), the finding that half of the populations are stable or increasing, and the note that the overall change is consistent with the 2024 edition.
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), press release, Gland, 9 July 2026, published 2026
Release for the latest IUCN Red List update. Source of the totals (175,909 species assessed, 49,505 threatened), the 62% (125 of 201) of endemic hydrothermal vent molluscs at risk from deep-sea mining, the over 30 vent species assessed as Least Concern inside marine protected areas, the numbat's recovery and its 0.04% range, and the five Australian marsupials confirmed as extinct.
Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), published by UNEP, published 2019
Official release of the most recent IPBES global assessment, compiled by 145 expert authors from 50 countries. Source of the estimate of around 1 million species threatened with extinction, the share of land (three-quarters) and marine environment (about 66%) significantly altered, the ranking of the five direct drivers, the share of land and fresh water used for crops or livestock, threatened shares of amphibians, corals and marine mammals, and the figures on land degradation, pollinators, coastal flood risk and plastic pollution.
Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), 18 December 2024, published 2024
Release of the assessment approved by the 147 IPBES member governments in Windhoek, Namibia. Source of the underlying causes of biodiversity loss, the share of global GDP (about $58 trillion) dependent on nature, harmful public subsidies ($1.4–3.3 trillion in 2022, up 55% since 2021), conservation spending ($135 billion) against the estimated need ($722–967 billion) and gap ($598–824 billion), external costs ($10.7 trillion), the cost of delay, and the role of Indigenous Peoples and local communities (about 40% of protected areas and intact ecosystems in 87 countries).
IUCN, on the report prepared by UNEP-WCMC in collaboration with IUCN (Cali, 28 October 2024), published 2024
Launch of the first Protected Planet Report to track Target 3 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. Source of coverage in 2024 (17.6% of land and inland waters, 8.4% of the ocean), the rise of less than 0.5 percentage points since 2020, the expansion needed by 2030, connectivity (8.5% of land), management effectiveness and governance assessments, the share of the most important areas for biodiversity outside protection, countries above 30% and the US$200 billion finance goal.
Earth Negotiations Bulletin, International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), published 2026
Independent record of the last intergovernmental preparatory meeting before COP17 (Yerevan, Armenia, October 2026). Source of the COP16 decisions in Cali (2024) and Rome (2025), including the Cali Fund, the status of national plans and reports (74 updated NBSAPs and 147 national targets by 16 February 2026; seventh national reports due end of February 2026), the global review of collective progress, data concerns, the passed US$20 billion finance goal for 2025 and proposals such as debt-for-nature swaps.