The Director General of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Pakistan, Hammad Naqi Khan, stated that climate change is fueling biodiversity loss in Pakistan, and the decline in species’ populations will impact entire ecosystems, and ultimately future generations.
He said this in response to the WWF’s Living Planet Report (LPR) 2022 which revealed a devastating 69 percent drop in wildlife populations on average since 1970.
With its biggest dataset yet, featuring almost 32,000 populations of over 5,000 species of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and fish, the Living Planet Index (LPI), shows that wildlife populations are plummeting at a particularly staggering rate in tropical regions.
The report highlights the stark outlook of the state of nature and the WWF is extremely concerned about this trend, given that these geographical areas are some of the most biodiverse in the world. It urgently warned governments, businesses, and the public to take transformative action to reverse the destruction of biodiversity.
“The report’s shocking figures highlight the interlinked climate and biodiversity crises,” Khan said.
He added that Pakistan experienced unprecedented monsoon rains and floods this year, in which more than 1,500 people died and millions were displaced. He attributed the scale of the floods and the preceding heatwave to climate change and stressed that Pakistan is becoming increasingly vulnerable to climate-induced disasters.
Khan mentioned that Pakistan is home to magnificent wildlife, some of which is threatened and endangered, including the snow leopard and the common leopard, the Indus River dolphin, the white-backed vulture and the long-billed vulture, and the Arabian Sea humpback whale, among others.
He remarked that wildlife conservation generally has low priority in Pakistan and species face multiple threats including habitat loss, illegal wildlife trade, hunting, pollution, and risks from other human activities. Pakistan should undertake collaborative efforts to protect wildlife habitats, address the issue of illegal wildlife trade and restore our fragile ecosystems, Khan stressed.
He also emphasized the need to engage various government and non-government stakeholders to develop a joint strategy to lead climate-resilient development.
Global Stakes
The WWF disclosed in its report that monitored freshwater populations have fallen by an average of 83 percent since 1970, which is the largest decline in any species group. Habitat loss and barriers to migration routes are responsible for about half of the threats to monitored migratory fish species. One million plants and animals are threatened with extinction, and up to 2.5 percent of birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, and fishes have already gone extinct. The population abundance and genetic diversity have decreased, and species are losing their climatically determined habitats.
The world’s food production also relies on a healthy and stable natural world but climate change is projected to decrease productive land and waters, shorten growing seasons, and decrease crop yields, as per the WWF report. It further highlights the need for sustainability in food systems especially since they are currently responsible for around 30 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions, while significantly contributing to climate change and pollution.
The WWF also suggested that by adopting nature-positive food production at scale, shifting to healthier and more sustainable diets, and eliminating food loss and waste, everyone can be provided with healthy and nutritious food within planetary boundaries.
World leaders are due to meet at the 15th Conference of Parties to the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD COP15) this December for a once-in-a-decade opportunity to course-correct for the sake of people and the planet. WWF is advocating for leaders to commit to a ‘Paris-style’ agreement capable of reversing biodiversity loss to secure a nature-positive world by 2030.
