Africa’s monitored wildlife populations declined 80% since 1970, new report says

The Living Planet Report 2026, released by the Zoological Society of London and WWF, finds Africa's monitored wildlife populations have declined an average of 80% since 1970, worse than the global average of 73% but better than Latin America and the Caribbean's 95% drop. The index draws on over 35,000 population trends across nearly 5,800 vertebrate species, and the report stresses it measures average population size changes, not a that-many-species-gone figure.

Habitat destruction from agriculture, logging, mining and infrastructure tops the list of pressures, compounded by hunting, poaching, climate change and pollution. African forest elephants have fallen more than 60% in recent decades, largely from habitat loss and ivory poaching.

The report notes conservation does work where it's sustained: savanna elephant populations are rising in areas with community wildlife management, anti-trafficking enforcement and judicial reform. The findings arrive as governments prepare to assess progress toward 2030 biodiversity targets that include halting extinctions and conserving 30% of land and water.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.