A World Wildlife Fund (WWF) report has said that wildlife populations have fallen by more than two-thirds in less than 50 years and the “catastrophic decline” shows no sign of slowing, reported BBC.

Chief executive at WWF,  Tanya Steele said that as humans are burning forests and over-fishing seas, nature and wildlife is being destroyed at a never before seen rate. She said, “We are wrecking our world – the one place we call home – risking our health, security and survival here on Earth. Now nature is sending us a desperate SOS and time is running out.”

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The WWF report studied thousands of various wildlife species around the world and recorded an average 68% fall in more than 20,000 populations of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish since 1970.

Director of conservation at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), Dr Andrew Terry,  said that the decline was a clear evidence of the damage human activity is doing to the natural world. He said, “If nothing changes, populations will undoubtedly continue to fall, driving wildlife to extinction and threatening the integrity of the ecosystems on which we depend.”

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According to the report, the COVID-19 pandemic is a stark reminder of how nature and humans are intertwined.

The report used an index of whether populations of wildlife are increasing or going down. It does not tell us the number of species lost, or extinctions. The report states that the largest decline is in the tropical forests with drop of 94% for Latin America and the Caribbean being the largest anywhere in the world.