Africa: Africa's Wildlife Population Plunges By 80% in Five Decades, WWF Warns

What the report says

A new World Wide Fund for Nature assessment says monitored wildlife populations across Africa have fallen by an average of 80% over the past five decades. The report, the Living Planet Report 2026, covers declines in mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish between 1970 and 2022 and places Africa behind only Latin America and the Caribbean in regional losses, according to the RFI report distributed by AllAfrica.

The article says the findings were released ahead of the UN biodiversity conference Cop17 in Armenia, where governments are expected to review progress on commitments to halt nature loss. WWF France conservation director Yann Laurans said the trend is still moving in the wrong direction, while also noting that Africa’s steep decline partly reflects the fact that systematic monitoring began when biodiversity levels on the continent were still relatively high.

WWF highlighted the Congo Basin as a major pressure point because of farming expansion, logging, mining, road building, hunting and poaching. The report also points to broader threats such as climate change, habitat destruction, overexploitation, pollution, invasive species and disease, and argues that shifts in energy, food and financial systems are needed to address the crisis.

At the same time, WWF said conservation can work when it is funded and sustained, citing recoveries in some animal populations, including tigers and some elephants. The organization frames the report as both a warning about continuing biodiversity decline and a call for stronger investment in conservation and restoration.