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WWF Living Planet Report: Wildlife population sizes decline by an average of 73% globally
As Canadian species continue to fall, governments must apply the same urgency and ambition to fast-tracking nature's recovery as they are bringing to development. TORONTO, Oct. 7, 2026 /CNW/ -- The average size of monitored wildlife populations worldwide has fallen 73 per cent since 1970, according to World Wildlife Fund's Living Planet Report (LPR) 2026. The finding underscores the continuing scale and severity of global wildlife decline and sustained pressure on the ecosystems both people and wildlife depend on. Canada is contributing to this global trend. From salmon to caribou, wildlife populations nationwide have been steadily falling for decades despite our country's vast terrestrial landscapes, ocean and freshwater ecosystems. The new global findings echo declines documented in WWF-Canada's 2025 Living Planet Report Canada, which found that more than half (52 per cent) of monitored vertebrate species are decreasing in abundance. On average, every species group studied -- birds, fish, mammals, and reptiles and amphibians -- is trending in the wrong direction. And throughout Canada, species of global conservation concern, those found on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, saw their populations decline by 43 per cent, on average. The evidence of continued wildlife decline comes as governments across Canada...
