Conservation efforts have helped some species recover, but WWF warns the window to act is closing. (Photo: iStock) Monitored wildlife populations have declined by an average of 73% since 1970, but nature's recovery remains within reach if the world acts quickly, according to WWF's Living Planet Report 2026. The report draws on the Living Planet Index, compiled by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), which tracked 35,803 populations of 5,790 vertebrate species between 1970 and 2022. The figure is an average change in population size, not a count of animals lost. Habitat loss, driven largely by agricultural expansion, is the most frequently reported cause, followed by overexploitation and climate change. Wildlife populations in Africa have fallen by 80% on average since 1970, according to WWF. (Photo: iStock) The steepest falls were in Latin America and the Caribbean (95%), Africa (80%) and Asia and the Pacific (49%). Freshwater populations fared worst, down 85%, compared with 69% on land and 59% at sea. WWF says the stakes are economic as well as environmental, because half of global GDP depends on nature in some way. It points to a UK government national security assessment published earlier this year, which found that "every critical ecosystem is on a pathway to collapse, threatening UK national security and prosperity". WWF said summer heat in the UK and Europe underscored this, causing wildfires and shrivelling crops, with the UK harvest estimated to be the worst on record. Transforming the sectors that drive biodiversity loss. Arrows are read from top to bottom as a causal chain: capital allocation shapes sectoral activity, which creates direct drivers of biodiversity loss and ultimately determines how much biodiversity is lost. (Source: WWF) Tanya Steele, chief executive at WWF-UK, said nature loss "is not just a crisis for wildlife" but is "already sending us the bill" through growing risks to food security, water supplies, the economy and resilience to climate shocks. The summer's extreme weather, she said, was "a stark reminder of what's at stake". "We stand at a fork in the road," she said. The world can keep paying the rising price of nature loss or invest in recovery, so that people and wildlife can thrive together. "The window to secure that future is closing fast, but successful conservation efforts from tuna to tigers show that we can succeed." Governments, businesses and communities, she added, must pull together to transform food, energy and finance. The bluefin tuna have recovered after decades of overfishing, WWF says. (Photo: iStock) Dr Louise McRae of ZSL's Institute of Zoology said: "Behind every global statistic is evidence of wildlife populations rebounding and habitats recovering, driven by people working together to reverse biodiversity loss." However, WWF stresses that these successes remain fragile and that conservation cannot succeed alone. Green sea turtles downlisted from Endangered to Least Concern in 2025 after 50 years of conservation efforts. (Photo : iStock) Food must be next, it says. Soybeans grown in formerly wild areas of Brazil and Argentina feed British chickens, whose numbers have tripled in 50 years. National food strategies and an overhaul of farm subsidies are the main levers, while finance is still at an early stage. Read More:Magic Or FOMO: What Is Driving India's Unmanageable Pilgrimage Crowds?