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| 41908 | Biodiversity | biodiversity | page | publish | <!-- wp:html --> <!-- formatting-options toc:false bodyClassName:topic-page --> <!-- /wp:html --> <!-- wp:owid/sticky-nav --> <!-- wp:navigation-link {"label":"Introduction","url":"#introduction","kind":"custom","isTopLevelLink":false} /--> <!-- wp:navigation-link {"label":"Key Insights","url":"#key-insights-on-biodiversity","kind":"custom","isTopLevelLink":false} /--> <!-- wp:navigation-link {"label":"Research \u0026amp; Writing","url":"#research-writing","kind":"custom","isTopLevelLink":false} /--> <!-- wp:navigation-link {"label":"Charts","url":"#interactive-charts-on-biodiversity","kind":"custom","isTopLevelLink":false} /--> <!-- wp:navigation-link {"label":"Endnotes","url":"#endnotes","kind":"custom","isTopLevelLink":false} /--> <!-- wp:navigation-link {"label":"Cite This Work","url":"#citation","kind":"custom","isTopLevelLink":false} /--> <!-- wp:navigation-link {"label":"Reuse This Work","url":"#licence","kind":"custom","isTopLevelLink":false} /--> <!-- /wp:owid/sticky-nav --> <!-- wp:owid/front-matter --> <!-- wp:columns {"className":"front-matter"} --> <div class="wp-block-columns front-matter"><!-- wp:column --> <div class="wp-block-column" id="introduction"><!-- wp:paragraph --> <p id="introduction">Most of our work on <em>Our World in Data</em> focuses on data and research on human well-being and prosperity.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>But we are just one of many species on Earth, and our demand for resources – <a href="http://ourworldindata.org/land-use">land</a>, water, food, and shelter – shapes the environment for other wildlife too.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>For millennia, humans have been reshaping ecosystems, directly through competition and hunting of other animals, and indirectly through <a href="http://ourworldindata.org/deforestation">deforestation</a> and land use changes for <a href="http://ourworldindata.org/environmental-impacts-of-food">agriculture</a>.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>You can find all our data, visualizations, and writing related to biodiversity on this page. It aims to provide context on how biodiversity has changed in the past; the state of wildlife today; and how we can use this knowledge to build a future path where humans and other species can thrive on our shared planet.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --></div> <!-- /wp:column --> <!-- wp:column --> <div class="wp-block-column"><!-- wp:group {"className":"related-topics"} --> <div class="wp-block-group related-topics"><!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Related topics</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:list --> <ul><li><a href="https://ourworldindata.org/land-use">Land use</a></li><li><a href="https://ourworldindata.org/fish-and-overfishing">Fish and overfishing</a></li><li><a href="https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions">CO₂ and Greenhouse Gas Emissions</a></li><li><a href="http://ourworldindata.org/forests-and-deforestation">Deforestation</a></li></ul> <!-- /wp:list --></div> <!-- /wp:group --></div> <!-- /wp:column --></div> <!-- /wp:columns --> <!-- /wp:owid/front-matter --> <!-- wp:owid/key-insights-slider {"title":"Key insights on Biodiversity","slug":"key-insights-on-biodiversity"} --> <!-- wp:owid/key-insight {"title":"On average, there has been a large decline across tens of thousands of wildlife populations since 1970","slug":"on-average-there-has-been-a-large-decline-across-tens-of-thousands-of-wildlife-populations-since-1970"} --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>One of the most widely-quoted, but misunderstood, metrics on biodiversity is the Living Planet Index.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Living Planet Index tries to summarize the average change in population size of tens of thousands of studied animal populations. It distills this change into a single number. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>It's important to note that this data is not globally representative: some regions have much more data available than others. Biodiversity data is much more limited in the tropics, for example.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>What it reports is the <em>average</em> decline in animal population sizes since 1970. This does not tell us the:</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:list --> <ul><li>Number of species lost;</li><li>Number of populations or individuals that have been lost;</li><li>Number or percentage of species or populations that are declining;</li><li>Number of extinctions.</li></ul> <!-- /wp:list --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Since 1970, then, the size of animal populations for which data is available have declined by 69%, on average. The decline for some populations is much larger; for some, it’s much smaller. And, in fact, many populations have been <em>increasing</em> in size. We cover this in the next key insight.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:owid/prominent-link {"title":"","linkUrl":"https://ourworldindata.org/living-planet-index-decline","className":"is-style-thin"} /--> <!-- wp:owid/technical-text --> <!-- wp:heading {"level":5} --> <h5>What you should know about this data</h5> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:list --> <ul><li>The Living Planet Project – which produces the Living Planet Index – is led by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and World Wildlife Fund (WWF).{ref}WWF (2022) Living Planet Report 2022 – Building a nature-positive society. Almond, R.E.A., Grooten, M., Juffe Bignoli, D. & Petersen, T. (Eds). WWF, Gland, Switzerland.{/ref}<br></li><li>Every two years, a new Living Planet Index report is published. This presents the latest high-quality data we have on animal populations, but also increases in global coverage with every new release.<br></li><li>The underlying data included in the Living Planet Index comes from a combination of published scientific articles, online databases, and government reports.<br></li><li>The Living Planet Index aggregates observations on changes in population size, and similar metrics, across tens of thousands of animal populations. Its 2022 report included figures across 30,000 wildlife populations. This captures everything from frogs to elephant species, rhinos to owls, from every continent on Earth. But even 30,000 populations are only a small fraction of the world’s wildlife.<br></li><li>This data is not globally representative: some regions have much more data available than others. Biodiversity data is much more limited in the tropics, for example.<br></li><li>The Living Planet Index only includes figures on vertebrate species – mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians. It does not include insects, corals, fungi, or plants.<br></li><li>Its final index is the average change in population size across <em>all</em> of the included animal populations. This figure is not representative of every population and is sensitive to outliers.{ref}Leung, B., Hargreaves, A. L., Greenberg, D. A., McGill, B., Dornelas, M., & Freeman, R. (2020). <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2920-6">Clustered versus catastrophic global vertebrate declines</a>. Nature, 588(7837), 267-271.{/ref}</li></ul> <!-- /wp:list --> <!-- /wp:owid/technical-text --> <!-- wp:html --> <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/global-living-planet-index" loading="lazy" style="width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;"></iframe> <!-- /wp:html --> <!-- /wp:owid/key-insight --> <!-- wp:owid/key-insight {"title":"Not all animal populations are in decline; around half have increasing numbers","slug":"not-all-animal-populations-are-in-decline-around-half-have-increasing-numbers"} --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Living Planet Index reports that there has been a large average decline across more than 30,000 animal populations.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>But, reducing the state of global biodiversity into a single figure is a problem. It hides a huge diversity of changes in animal populations within the dataset.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Living Planet Project also shows us what percentage of studied populations have increased, decreased, and remained stable since 1970.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Almost half of these animal populations have <em>increased</em>. This is shown in the chart.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Understanding the broad range of changes in populations is crucial if we’re to stop biodiversity loss – we need to know that not all animal populations are declining. We need to also know which populations are doing well and <em>why</em> they’re doing well.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:owid/prominent-link {"title":"","linkUrl":"https://ourworldindata.org/living-planet-index-understanding","className":"is-style-thin"} --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- /wp:owid/prominent-link --> <!-- wp:owid/technical-text --> <!-- wp:heading {"level":5} --> <h5>What you should know about this data</h5> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:list --> <ul><li>The Living Planet Project – which produces the Living Planet Index – is led by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and World Wildlife Fund (WWF).{ref}WWF (2022) Living Planet Report 2022 – Building a nature-positive society. Almond, R.E.A., Grooten, M., Juffe Bignoli, D. & Petersen, T. (Eds). WWF, Gland, Switzerland.{/ref}<br></li><li>Every two years, a new Living Planet Index report is published. This presents the latest high-quality data we have on animal populations, but also increases in global coverage with every new release.<br></li><li>The underlying data included in the Living Planet Index comes from a combination of published scientific articles, online databases, and government reports.<br></li><li>The Living Planet Index aggregates observations on changes in population size, and similar metrics, across tens of thousands of animal populations. Its 2022 report included figures across 30,000 wildlife populations. This captures everything from frogs to elephant species, rhinos to owls, from every continent on Earth. But even 30,000 populations are only a small fraction of the world’s wildlife.<br></li><li>This data is not globally representative: some regions have much more data available than others. Biodiversity data is much more limited in the tropics, for example.<br></li><li>The Living Planet Index only includes figures on vertebrate species – mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians. It does not include insects, corals, fungi, or plants.<br></li><li>Its final index is the average change in population size across <em>all</em> of the included animal populations. This figure is not representative of every population and is sensitive to outliers.{ref}Leung, B., Hargreaves, A. L., Greenberg, D. A., McGill, B., Dornelas, M., & Freeman, R. (2020). <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2920-6">Clustered versus catastrophic global vertebrate declines</a>. Nature, 588(7837), 267-271.{/ref}</li></ul> <!-- /wp:list --> <!-- /wp:owid/technical-text --> <!-- wp:image {"id":53591,"sizeSlug":"full","linkDestination":"none"} --> <figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img src="https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/10/Share-of-populations-increasing-and-declining-Living-Planet-Index.png" alt="" class="wp-image-53591"/></figure> <!-- /wp:image --> <!-- /wp:owid/key-insight --> <!-- wp:owid/key-insight {"title":"Wild mammals have declined by 85% since the rise of humans","slug":"wild-mammals-have-declined-by-85-since-the-rise-of-humans"} --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>A diverse range of mammals once roamed the planet. This changed quickly and dramatically with the rising number of humans over the course of the last 100,000 years. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Over this period, wild terrestrial mammal biomass has declined by an estimated 85%. This is shown in the chart.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>This looks at the change in wild mammals on the basis of <em>biomass</em>. This means that each animal is measured in tonnes of carbon that it holds. This is a function of its body mass.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>In an extended period between 50,000 to 10,000 years ago, hundreds of the world’s largest mammals were wiped out. This is called the Quaternary megafauna extinction event. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Humans were the main driver of this, killing off species through overhunting and changes to their habitats. What’s staggering is how <em>few</em> humans were alive at this time: <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/world-population-1750-2015-and-un-projection-until-2100?country=Our+World+In+Data~OWID_WRL">fewer than 5 million people</a> across the world.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Since then, wild mammals have continued to decline. A lot of this has been driven by the expansion of human agriculture into wild habitats.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>But, the future can be very different. We have the opportunity to restore wild mammals by reducing hunting and poaching, and cutting the amount of land that we use for farming.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:owid/prominent-link {"title":"","linkUrl":"https://ourworldindata.org/wild-mammal-decline","className":"is-style-thin"} /--> <!-- wp:owid/technical-text --> <!-- wp:heading {"level":5} --> <h5><strong>What you should know about this data</strong></h5> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:list --> <ul><li>These estimates come from a combination of studies:<ul><li>Figures 100,000 and 10,000 years ago come from the work of Anthony Barnosky.{ref}Barnosky, A. D. (2008). Megafauna biomass tradeoff as a driver of Quaternary and future extinctions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(Supplement 1), 11543-11548.{/ref}</li><li>Figures for the year 1900 come from the work of Vaclav Smil.{ref}Smil, V. (2011). Harvesting the biosphere: What we have taken from nature. MIT Press.{/ref}</li><li>Figures for 2015 (labeled as ‘Today’) come from the study of biomass distribution on Earth by researchers Yinon Bar-On, Rob Phillips, and Ron Milo, published in the <em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</em>.{ref}Bar-On, Y. M., Phillips, R., & Milo, R. (2018). <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1711842115">The biomass distribution on Earth</a>. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(25), 6506-6511.{/ref}</li></ul></li></ul> <!-- /wp:list --> <!-- wp:list --> <ul><li>Only <em>terrestrial</em> mammals are included in these estimates. Marine mammals, such as whales, are excluded.<br></li><li>These estimates compare mammals on the basis of <em>biomass</em>. This means that each animal is measured in tonnes of carbon that it holds. This is a function of its body mass.<br></li><li>To calculate the biomass of a taxonomic group, the researchers multiply the carbon stock for a single organism by the number of individuals in that group. In humans, for example, they would calculate the average carbon quantity of a person (about 15%) and multiply it by the human population.<br></li><li>These figures are approximate and come with significant uncertainty, for two key reasons: <ul><li>The total number of wild mammals is highly uncertain. This is particularly true for wild mammal populations in the distant past.</li><li>In these calculations, researchers multiply the number of animals by the <em>average</em> mass of each species and assume that this mass is constant over time.</li></ul></li></ul> <!-- /wp:list --> <!-- /wp:owid/technical-text --> <!-- wp:image {"id":42536,"sizeSlug":"full","linkDestination":"none"} --> <figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img src="https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/04/Decline-of-wild-mammals.png" alt="" class="wp-image-42536"/></figure> <!-- /wp:image --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- /wp:owid/key-insight --> <!-- wp:owid/key-insight {"title":"Wild mammals make up only a few percent of the world’s mammals","slug":"wild-mammals-make-up-only-a-few-percent-of-the-world-s-mammals"} --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>In the chart, we see the distribution of mammals on Earth.{ref}Bar-On, Y. M., Phillips, R., & Milo, R. (2018). <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1711842115">The biomass distribution on Earth</a>. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(25), 6506-6511.{/ref} These estimates compare mammals on the basis of <em>biomass</em>. This means that each animal is measured in tonnes of carbon that it holds. This is a function of its body mass. Each rectangle represents one million tonnes of carbon.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Wild mammals make up just 4% of global mammal biomass. This includes marine and land-based mammals.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The other 96% is humans and our livestock.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The dominance of humans is clear. Alone, we account for around one-third of mammal biomass. Almost ten times greater than wild mammals. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Our livestock then accounts for almost two-thirds. Cattle weigh almost ten times as much as all wild mammals combined. The biomass of all of the world’s wild mammals is about the same as our sheep.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Poultry is not included here. But for birds, the distribution is similar: poultry biomass is more than twice that of wild birds.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:owid/prominent-link {"title":"","linkUrl":"https://ourworldindata.org/wild-mammals-birds-biomass","className":"is-style-thin"} --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- /wp:owid/prominent-link --> <!-- wp:owid/technical-text --> <!-- wp:heading {"level":5} --> <h5><strong>What you should know about this data</strong></h5> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:list --> <ul><li>This data comes from the study of biomass distribution on Earth by researchers Yinon Bar-On, Rob Phillips, and Ron Milo, published in the <em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</em>.{ref}Bar-On, Y. M., Phillips, R., & Milo, R. (2018). <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1711842115">The biomass distribution on Earth</a>. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(25), 6506-6511.{/ref}<br></li></ul> <!-- /wp:list --> <!-- wp:list --> <ul><li>These estimates compare mammals on the basis of <em>biomass</em>. This means that each animal is measured in tonnes of carbon that it holds. This is a function of its body mass.<br></li><li>To calculate the biomass of a taxonomic group, the researchers multiplied the carbon stock for a single organism by the number of individuals in that group. In humans, for example, they calculate the average carbon quantity of a person and multiply by the human population. If you want to quickly estimate your carbon biomass: calculate 15% of your weight.<br></li><li>These figures are approximate and come with significant uncertainty because the total number of <em>wild</em> mammals is highly uncertain.</li></ul> <!-- /wp:list --> <!-- /wp:owid/technical-text --> <!-- wp:image {"id":41947,"sizeSlug":"full","linkDestination":"none"} --> <figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img src="https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/03/Distribution-of-earths-mammals.png" alt="" class="wp-image-41947"/></figure> <!-- /wp:image --> <!-- /wp:owid/key-insight --> <!-- wp:owid/key-insight {"title":"Thanks to conservation efforts, some wild mammals are making a comeback","slug":"thanks-to-conservation-efforts-some-wild-mammals-are-making-a-comeback"} --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>We have already seen that many animal populations have increased in the last decades. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Mammals in Europe are a prime example. Many of the region’s iconic mammal species – such as the Eurasian beaver, European bison, and brown bear – have been making a return.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>In the chart, we see the average change in the population size of several mammal species in Europe. The studied time span differs from animal to animal, as the chart shows.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>For example between 1960 and 2016, populations of brown bears increased by an average of 44%. Between 1977 and 2016, populations of Eurasian otters increased by an average of 300%.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Conservation efforts have played an important role in the return of these mammals, but it is not the only reason for this positive development. One important change is that the rise in agricultural productivity made it possible that agricultural land <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/land-use-agriculture-longterm?stackMode=relative&country=DEU~GBR~FRA~SWE~PRT~ITA~BEL~NLD">has declined</a> across Europe, giving more habitat back to wildlife. Countries brought in hunting quotas or even complete bans on hunting. And some species – such as the European bison – were brought back through well-managed re-introduction programs.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:owid/prominent-link {"title":"","linkUrl":"https://ourworldindata.org/europe-mammal-comeback","className":"is-style-thin"} --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- /wp:owid/prominent-link --> <!-- wp:owid/technical-text --> <!-- wp:heading {"level":5} --> <h5><strong>What you should know about this data</strong></h5> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:list --> <ul><li>This data comes from the <a href="https://rewildingeurope.com/wildlife-comeback-report-2022/">Wildlife Comeback Report 2022</a>. This is published by a coalition of conservation organizations, including the Zoological Society of London; Birdlife International; and Rewilding Europe.{ref}Ledger, S.E.H., Rutherford, C.A., Benham, C., Burfield, I.J., Deinet, S., Eaton, M., Freeman, R., Gray C., Herrando, S., Puleston, H., Scott-Gatty, K., Staneva, A. and McRae, L. (2022) <a href="https://rewildingeurope.com/wildlife-comeback-report-2022/">Wildlife Comeback in Europe: Opportunities and challenges for species recovery</a>. Final report to Rewilding Europe by the Zoological Society of London, BirdLife International and the European Bird Census Council.{/ref}<br></li><li>The dataset aggregates multiple studies of animal populations for each species. For example, 98 populations are included in the final figures for Eurasian beavers.</li></ul> <!-- /wp:list --> <!-- wp:list --> <ul><li>Researchers calculate the <em>average</em> <em>relative</em> change in population size across all of the studied populations of a given species. The final figure does not tell us the <em>total</em> change in populations across Europe.<br></li><li>Not every species in Europe is increasing in numbers. The underlying report focuses on a selection of mammal species that <em>have</em> made a comeback in recent decades. Many of those that are not shown might still be in decline, or only have stable population numbers.</li></ul> <!-- /wp:list --> <!-- /wp:owid/technical-text --> <!-- wp:image {"id":51611,"sizeSlug":"full","linkDestination":"none"} --> <figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img src="https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/05/Wildlife-comeback-in-Europe-1.png" alt="" class="wp-image-51611"/></figure> <!-- /wp:image --> <!-- /wp:owid/key-insight --> <!-- /wp:owid/key-insights-slider --> <!-- wp:owid/research-and-writing --> <!-- wp:group {"className":"wp-block-research-and-writing"} --> <div class="wp-block-group wp-block-research-and-writing"><!-- wp:heading --> <h2 id="research-writing">Research & Writing</h2> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:group {"className":"research-and-writing__top"} --> <div class="wp-block-group research-and-writing__top"><!-- wp:owid/card {"title":"Wild mammals have declined by 85% since the rise of humans, but there is a possible future where they flourish","linkUrl":"https://ourworldindata.org/wild-mammal-decline","mediaId":42542,"mediaUrl":"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/04/Wild-mammal-thumbnail.png","mediaAlt":""} --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Wild mammal biomass has declined by 85% since the rise of humans. But we can turn things around by reducing the amount of land we use for agriculture.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Hannah Ritchie</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- /wp:owid/card --> <!-- wp:group {"className":"research-and-writing__top-right"} --> <div class="wp-block-group research-and-writing__top-right"><!-- wp:owid/card {"title":"Wild mammals are making a comeback in Europe thanks to conservation efforts","linkUrl":"https://ourworldindata.org//europe-mammal-comeback","mediaId":51352,"mediaUrl":"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/05/European-mammals-thumbnail.png","mediaAlt":""} --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Hunting and habitat loss drove many large mammals in Europe close to extinction. New data shows us that many of the continent’s mammal populations are flourishing again.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Hannah Ritchie</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- /wp:owid/card --> <!-- wp:group --> <div class="wp-block-group"><!-- wp:group {"className":"research-and-writing__shorts"} --> <div class="wp-block-group research-and-writing__shorts"><!-- wp:group --> <div class="wp-block-group"><!-- wp:heading {"level":5} --> <h5>More Key articles on Biodiversity</h5> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:heading {"level":6} --> <h6><a href="https://ourworldindata.org/large-mammals-extinction">The largest mammals have always been at the greatest risk of extinction – this is still the case today</a></h6> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Hannah Ritchie</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --></div> <!-- /wp:group --> <!-- wp:group --> <div class="wp-block-group"><!-- wp:heading {"level":6} --> <h6><a href="https://ourworldindata.org/living-planet-index-decline">Living Planet Index: what does an average decline of 69% really mean?</a></h6> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Hannah Ritchie</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --></div> <!-- /wp:group --> <!-- wp:group --> <div class="wp-block-group"></div> <!-- /wp:group --></div> <!-- /wp:group --></div> <!-- /wp:group --></div> <!-- /wp:group --></div> <!-- /wp:group --> <!-- wp:heading {"level":4} --> <h4>Living Planet Index</h4> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:owid/grid {"className":"research-and-writing__sub-category"} --> <!-- wp:owid/card {"title":"Living Planet Index: what does an average decline of 69% really mean?","linkUrl":"https://ourworldindata.org/living-planet-index-decline","mediaId":42160,"mediaUrl":"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/03/Living-Planet-Index-thumbnail.png","mediaAlt":""} --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Hannah Ritchie</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- /wp:owid/card --> <!-- wp:owid/card {"title":"How the Living Planet project helps us understand how the world’s wildlife is changing","linkUrl":"https://ourworldindata.org/living-planet-index-understanding","mediaId":54355,"mediaUrl":"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Living-planet-index-shares-increasing-declining-thumbnail.png","mediaAlt":""} --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Hannah Ritchie</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- /wp:owid/card --> <!-- wp:owid/card {"title":"How did the Living Planet Index change in different world regions?","linkUrl":"https://ourworldindata.org/living-planet-index-region","mediaId":54364,"mediaUrl":"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/10/Living-planet-index-region-thumbnail.png","mediaAlt":""} --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Hannah Ritchie</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- /wp:owid/card --> <!-- wp:owid/card {"title":"FAQs on the Living Planet Index","linkUrl":"https://ourworldindata.org/faq-living-planet-index","mediaId":42160,"mediaUrl":"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/03/Living-Planet-Index-thumbnail.png","mediaAlt":""} --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Hannah Ritchie</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- /wp:owid/card --> <!-- /wp:owid/grid --> <!-- wp:heading {"level":4} --> <h4>Mammals</h4> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:owid/grid {"className":"research-and-writing__sub-category"} --> <!-- wp:owid/card {"title":"Wild mammals make up only a few percent of the world’s mammals","linkUrl":"https://ourworldindata.org/wild-mammals-birds-biomass","mediaId":54667,"mediaUrl":"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Mammal-distribution-thumbnail.png","mediaAlt":""} --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Hannah Ritchie</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- /wp:owid/card --> <!-- wp:owid/card {"title":"The state of the world's elephant populations","linkUrl":"https://ourworldindata.org/elephant-populations","mediaId":54668,"mediaUrl":"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Elephants.png","mediaAlt":""} --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Hannah Ritchie</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- /wp:owid/card --> <!-- wp:owid/card {"title":"The state of the world's rhino populations","linkUrl":"https://ourworldindata.org/rhino-populations","mediaId":54669,"mediaUrl":"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Rhino-thumbnail.png","mediaAlt":""} --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Hannah Ritchie</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- /wp:owid/card --> <!-- wp:owid/card {"title":"Global whaling peaked in the 1960s","linkUrl":"https://ourworldindata.org/whaling","mediaId":54662,"mediaUrl":"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Whaling-featured-image.png","mediaAlt":""} --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Hannah Ritchie</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- /wp:owid/card --> <!-- /wp:owid/grid --> <!-- wp:owid/grid {"className":"research-and-writing__sub-category"} /--> <!-- wp:heading {"level":4} --> <h4>Extinctions</h4> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:owid/grid {"className":"research-and-writing__sub-category"} --> <!-- wp:owid/card {"title":"There have been five mass extinctions in Earth's history","linkUrl":"https://ourworldindata.org/mass-extinctions","mediaId":42157,"mediaUrl":"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/03/Extinctions-thumbnail.png","mediaAlt":""} --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Hannah Ritchie</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- /wp:owid/card --> <!-- wp:owid/card {"title":"Did humans cause the Quaternary Megafauna Extinction?","linkUrl":"https://ourworldindata.org/quaternary-megafauna-extinction","mediaId":54661,"mediaUrl":"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Quaternary-extinctions-featured-image.png","mediaAlt":""} --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Hannah Ritchie</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- /wp:owid/card --> <!-- wp:owid/card {"title":"What does it mean for a species to be at risk of extinction?","linkUrl":"https://ourworldindata.org/extinction-risk-definition","mediaId":55972,"mediaUrl":"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2023/02/IUCN-Thumbnail-01.png","mediaAlt":""} --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Hannah Ritchie</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- /wp:owid/card --> <!-- /wp:owid/grid --> <!-- wp:heading {"level":4} --> <h4>Other articles on Biodiversity</h4> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:owid/grid {"className":"research-and-writing__sub-category"} --> <!-- wp:owid/card {"title":"How much of the world’s food production is dependent on pollinators?","linkUrl":"https://ourworldindata.org/pollinator-dependence","mediaId":44432,"mediaUrl":"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/07/Pollinator-thumbnail.png","mediaAlt":""} --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Hannah Ritchie</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- /wp:owid/card --> <!-- wp:owid/card {"title":"To protect the world’s wildlife we must improve crop yields – especially across Africa\u003cbr\u003e","linkUrl":"https://ourworldindata.org/yields-habitat-loss","mediaId":44764,"mediaUrl":"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/09/Biodiversity-habitat.png","mediaAlt":""} --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Hannah Ritchie</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- /wp:owid/card --> <!-- wp:owid/card {"title":"Humans make up just 0.01% of Earth’s life – what’s the rest?","linkUrl":"https://ourworldindata.org/life-on-earth","mediaId":54353,"mediaUrl":"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Life-on-earth-thumbnail.png","mediaAlt":""} --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Hannah Ritchie</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- /wp:owid/card --> <!-- wp:owid/card {"title":"Oceans, land, and deep subsurface: how is life distributed across environments?","linkUrl":"https://ourworldindata.org/life-by-environment","mediaId":54352,"mediaUrl":"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Life-on-earth-environments.png","mediaAlt":""} --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Hannah Ritchie</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- /wp:owid/card --> <!-- /wp:owid/grid --> <!-- wp:owid/grid {"className":"research-and-writing__sub-category"} --> <!-- wp:owid/card {"title":"How many species are there?","linkUrl":"https://ourworldindata.org/how-many-species-are-there","mediaId":54664,"mediaUrl":"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Number-of-species-thumbnail.png","mediaAlt":""} --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Hannah Ritchie</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- /wp:owid/card --> <!-- /wp:owid/grid --></div> <!-- /wp:group --> <!-- /wp:owid/research-and-writing --> <!-- wp:owid/all-charts /--> | {
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2022-12-19 21:01:00 | 2024-06-03 14:41:15 | [
"Hannah Ritchie",
"Fiona Spooner"
] |
Explore the diversity of wildlife across the planet. What are species threatened with? What can we do to prevent biodiversity loss? | 2021-03-26 22:10:16 | 2024-01-11 10:40:52 | https://ourworldindata.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/biodiversity-thumbnail.png | {
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Most of our work on _Our World in Data_ focuses on data and research on human well-being and prosperity. But we are just one of many species on Earth, and our demand for resources – [land](http://ourworldindata.org/land-use), water, food, and shelter – shapes the environment for other wildlife too. For millennia, humans have been reshaping ecosystems, directly through competition and hunting of other animals, and indirectly through [deforestation](http://ourworldindata.org/deforestation) and land use changes for [agriculture](http://ourworldindata.org/environmental-impacts-of-food). You can find all our data, visualizations, and writing related to biodiversity on this page. It aims to provide context on how biodiversity has changed in the past; the state of wildlife today; and how we can use this knowledge to build a future path where humans and other species can thrive on our shared planet. Related topics * [Land use](https://ourworldindata.org/land-use) * [Fish and overfishing](https://ourworldindata.org/fish-and-overfishing) * [CO₂ and Greenhouse Gas Emissions](https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions) * [Deforestation](http://ourworldindata.org/forests-and-deforestation) One of the most widely-quoted, but misunderstood, metrics on biodiversity is the Living Planet Index. The Living Planet Index tries to summarize the average change in population size of tens of thousands of studied animal populations. It distills this change into a single number. It's important to note that this data is not globally representative: some regions have much more data available than others. Biodiversity data is much more limited in the tropics, for example. What it reports is the _average_ decline in animal population sizes since 1970. This does not tell us the: * Number of species lost; * Number of populations or individuals that have been lost; * Number or percentage of species or populations that are declining; * Number of extinctions. Since 1970, then, the size of animal populations for which data is available have declined by 69%, on average. The decline for some populations is much larger; for some, it’s much smaller. And, in fact, many populations have been _increasing_ in size. We cover this in the next key insight. ### https://ourworldindata.org/living-planet-index-decline ##### What you should know about this data * The Living Planet Project – which produces the Living Planet Index – is led by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and World Wildlife Fund (WWF).{ref}WWF (2022) Living Planet Report 2022 – Building a nature-positive society. Almond, R.E.A., Grooten, M., Juffe Bignoli, D. & Petersen, T. (Eds). WWF, Gland, Switzerland.{/ref} * Every two years, a new Living Planet Index report is published. This presents the latest high-quality data we have on animal populations, but also increases in global coverage with every new release. * The underlying data included in the Living Planet Index comes from a combination of published scientific articles, online databases, and government reports. * The Living Planet Index aggregates observations on changes in population size, and similar metrics, across tens of thousands of animal populations. Its 2022 report included figures across 30,000 wildlife populations. This captures everything from frogs to elephant species, rhinos to owls, from every continent on Earth. But even 30,000 populations are only a small fraction of the world’s wildlife. * This data is not globally representative: some regions have much more data available than others. Biodiversity data is much more limited in the tropics, for example. * The Living Planet Index only includes figures on vertebrate species – mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians. It does not include insects, corals, fungi, or plants. * Its final index is the average change in population size across _all_ of the included animal populations. This figure is not representative of every population and is sensitive to outliers.{ref}Leung, B., Hargreaves, A. L., Greenberg, D. A., McGill, B., Dornelas, M., & Freeman, R. (2020). [Clustered versus catastrophic global vertebrate declines](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2920-6). Nature, 588(7837), 267-271.{/ref} <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/global-living-planet-index"/> The Living Planet Index reports that there has been a large average decline across more than 30,000 animal populations. But, reducing the state of global biodiversity into a single figure is a problem. It hides a huge diversity of changes in animal populations within the dataset. The Living Planet Project also shows us what percentage of studied populations have increased, decreased, and remained stable since 1970. Almost half of these animal populations have _increased_. This is shown in the chart. Understanding the broad range of changes in populations is crucial if we’re to stop biodiversity loss – we need to know that not all animal populations are declining. We need to also know which populations are doing well and _why_ they’re doing well. ### https://ourworldindata.org/living-planet-index-understanding ##### What you should know about this data * The Living Planet Project – which produces the Living Planet Index – is led by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and World Wildlife Fund (WWF).{ref}WWF (2022) Living Planet Report 2022 – Building a nature-positive society. Almond, R.E.A., Grooten, M., Juffe Bignoli, D. & Petersen, T. (Eds). WWF, Gland, Switzerland.{/ref} * Every two years, a new Living Planet Index report is published. This presents the latest high-quality data we have on animal populations, but also increases in global coverage with every new release. * The underlying data included in the Living Planet Index comes from a combination of published scientific articles, online databases, and government reports. * The Living Planet Index aggregates observations on changes in population size, and similar metrics, across tens of thousands of animal populations. Its 2022 report included figures across 30,000 wildlife populations. This captures everything from frogs to elephant species, rhinos to owls, from every continent on Earth. But even 30,000 populations are only a small fraction of the world’s wildlife. * This data is not globally representative: some regions have much more data available than others. Biodiversity data is much more limited in the tropics, for example. * The Living Planet Index only includes figures on vertebrate species – mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians. It does not include insects, corals, fungi, or plants. * Its final index is the average change in population size across _all_ of the included animal populations. This figure is not representative of every population and is sensitive to outliers.{ref}Leung, B., Hargreaves, A. L., Greenberg, D. A., McGill, B., Dornelas, M., & Freeman, R. (2020). [Clustered versus catastrophic global vertebrate declines](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2920-6). Nature, 588(7837), 267-271.{/ref} <Image filename="Share-of-populations-increasing-and-declining-Living-Planet-Index.png" alt=""/> A diverse range of mammals once roamed the planet. This changed quickly and dramatically with the rising number of humans over the course of the last 100,000 years. Over this period, wild terrestrial mammal biomass has declined by an estimated 85%. This is shown in the chart. This looks at the change in wild mammals on the basis of _biomass_. This means that each animal is measured in tonnes of carbon that it holds. This is a function of its body mass. In an extended period between 50,000 to 10,000 years ago, hundreds of the world’s largest mammals were wiped out. This is called the Quaternary megafauna extinction event. Humans were the main driver of this, killing off species through overhunting and changes to their habitats. What’s staggering is how _few_ humans were alive at this time: [fewer than 5 million people](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/world-population-1750-2015-and-un-projection-until-2100?country=Our+World+In+Data~OWID_WRL) across the world. Since then, wild mammals have continued to decline. A lot of this has been driven by the expansion of human agriculture into wild habitats. But, the future can be very different. We have the opportunity to restore wild mammals by reducing hunting and poaching, and cutting the amount of land that we use for farming. ### https://ourworldindata.org/wild-mammal-decline ##### **What you should know about this data** * These estimates come from a combination of studies: * Only _terrestrial_ mammals are included in these estimates. Marine mammals, such as whales, are excluded. * These estimates compare mammals on the basis of _biomass_. This means that each animal is measured in tonnes of carbon that it holds. This is a function of its body mass. * To calculate the biomass of a taxonomic group, the researchers multiply the carbon stock for a single organism by the number of individuals in that group. In humans, for example, they would calculate the average carbon quantity of a person (about 15%) and multiply it by the human population. * These figures are approximate and come with significant uncertainty, for two key reasons: <Image filename="Decline-of-wild-mammals.png" alt=""/> In the chart, we see the distribution of mammals on Earth.{ref}Bar-On, Y. M., Phillips, R., & Milo, R. (2018). [The biomass distribution on Earth](https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1711842115). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(25), 6506-6511.{/ref} These estimates compare mammals on the basis of _biomass_. This means that each animal is measured in tonnes of carbon that it holds. This is a function of its body mass. Each rectangle represents one million tonnes of carbon. Wild mammals make up just 4% of global mammal biomass. This includes marine and land-based mammals. The other 96% is humans and our livestock. The dominance of humans is clear. Alone, we account for around one-third of mammal biomass. Almost ten times greater than wild mammals. Our livestock then accounts for almost two-thirds. Cattle weigh almost ten times as much as all wild mammals combined. The biomass of all of the world’s wild mammals is about the same as our sheep. Poultry is not included here. But for birds, the distribution is similar: poultry biomass is more than twice that of wild birds. ### https://ourworldindata.org/wild-mammals-birds-biomass ##### **What you should know about this data** * This data comes from the study of biomass distribution on Earth by researchers Yinon Bar-On, Rob Phillips, and Ron Milo, published in the _Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences_.{ref}Bar-On, Y. M., Phillips, R., & Milo, R. (2018). [The biomass distribution on Earth](https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1711842115). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(25), 6506-6511.{/ref} * These estimates compare mammals on the basis of _biomass_. This means that each animal is measured in tonnes of carbon that it holds. This is a function of its body mass. * To calculate the biomass of a taxonomic group, the researchers multiplied the carbon stock for a single organism by the number of individuals in that group. In humans, for example, they calculate the average carbon quantity of a person and multiply by the human population. If you want to quickly estimate your carbon biomass: calculate 15% of your weight. * These figures are approximate and come with significant uncertainty because the total number of _wild_ mammals is highly uncertain. <Image filename="Distribution-of-earths-mammals.png" alt=""/> We have already seen that many animal populations have increased in the last decades. Mammals in Europe are a prime example. Many of the region’s iconic mammal species – such as the Eurasian beaver, European bison, and brown bear – have been making a return. In the chart, we see the average change in the population size of several mammal species in Europe. The studied time span differs from animal to animal, as the chart shows. For example between 1960 and 2016, populations of brown bears increased by an average of 44%. Between 1977 and 2016, populations of Eurasian otters increased by an average of 300%. Conservation efforts have played an important role in the return of these mammals, but it is not the only reason for this positive development. One important change is that the rise in agricultural productivity made it possible that agricultural land [has declined](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/land-use-agriculture-longterm?stackMode=relative&country=DEU~GBR~FRA~SWE~PRT~ITA~BEL~NLD) across Europe, giving more habitat back to wildlife. Countries brought in hunting quotas or even complete bans on hunting. And some species – such as the European bison – were brought back through well-managed re-introduction programs. ### https://ourworldindata.org/europe-mammal-comeback ##### **What you should know about this data** * This data comes from the [Wildlife Comeback Report 2022](https://rewildingeurope.com/wildlife-comeback-report-2022/). This is published by a coalition of conservation organizations, including the Zoological Society of London; Birdlife International; and Rewilding Europe.{ref}Ledger, S.E.H., Rutherford, C.A., Benham, C., Burfield, I.J., Deinet, S., Eaton, M., Freeman, R., Gray C., Herrando, S., Puleston, H., Scott-Gatty, K., Staneva, A. and McRae, L. (2022) [Wildlife Comeback in Europe: Opportunities and challenges for species recovery](https://rewildingeurope.com/wildlife-comeback-report-2022/). Final report to Rewilding Europe by the Zoological Society of London, BirdLife International and the European Bird Census Council.{/ref} * The dataset aggregates multiple studies of animal populations for each species. For example, 98 populations are included in the final figures for Eurasian beavers. * Researchers calculate the _average__relative_ change in population size across all of the studied populations of a given species. The final figure does not tell us the _total_ change in populations across Europe. * Not every species in Europe is increasing in numbers. The underlying report focuses on a selection of mammal species that _have_ made a comeback in recent decades. Many of those that are not shown might still be in decline, or only have stable population numbers. <Image filename="Wildlife-comeback-in-Europe-1.png" alt=""/> ## Research & Writing Wild mammal biomass has declined by 85% since the rise of humans. But we can turn things around by reducing the amount of land we use for agriculture. Hannah Ritchie Hunting and habitat loss drove many large mammals in Europe close to extinction. New data shows us that many of the continent’s mammal populations are flourishing again. Hannah Ritchie ##### More Key articles on Biodiversity ###### [The largest mammals have always been at the greatest risk of extinction – this is still the case today](https://ourworldindata.org/large-mammals-extinction) Hannah Ritchie ###### [Living Planet Index: what does an average decline of 69% really mean?](https://ourworldindata.org/living-planet-index-decline) Hannah Ritchie #### Living Planet Index Hannah Ritchie Hannah Ritchie Hannah Ritchie Hannah Ritchie #### Mammals Hannah Ritchie Hannah Ritchie Hannah Ritchie Hannah Ritchie #### Extinctions Hannah Ritchie Hannah Ritchie Hannah Ritchie #### Other articles on Biodiversity Hannah Ritchie Hannah Ritchie Hannah Ritchie Hannah Ritchie Hannah Ritchie | {
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"rendered": "\n<!-- formatting-options toc:false bodyClassName:topic-page -->\n\n\n\t<div class=\"sticky-nav-contents\">\n<li class=\" wp-block-navigation-item wp-block-navigation-link\"><a class=\"wp-block-navigation-item__content\" href=\"#introduction\"><span class=\"wp-block-navigation-item__label\">Introduction</span></a></li>\n\n<li class=\" wp-block-navigation-item wp-block-navigation-link\"><a class=\"wp-block-navigation-item__content\" href=\"#key-insights-on-biodiversity\"><span class=\"wp-block-navigation-item__label\">Key Insights</span></a></li>\n\n<li class=\" wp-block-navigation-item wp-block-navigation-link\"><a class=\"wp-block-navigation-item__content\" href=\"#research-writing\"><span class=\"wp-block-navigation-item__label\">Research & Writing</span></a></li>\n\n<li class=\" wp-block-navigation-item wp-block-navigation-link\"><a class=\"wp-block-navigation-item__content\" href=\"#interactive-charts-on-biodiversity\"><span class=\"wp-block-navigation-item__label\">Charts</span></a></li>\n\n<li class=\" wp-block-navigation-item wp-block-navigation-link\"><a class=\"wp-block-navigation-item__content\" href=\"#endnotes\"><span class=\"wp-block-navigation-item__label\">Endnotes</span></a></li>\n\n<li class=\" wp-block-navigation-item wp-block-navigation-link\"><a class=\"wp-block-navigation-item__content\" href=\"#citation\"><span class=\"wp-block-navigation-item__label\">Cite This Work</span></a></li>\n\n<li class=\" wp-block-navigation-item wp-block-navigation-link\"><a class=\"wp-block-navigation-item__content\" href=\"#licence\"><span class=\"wp-block-navigation-item__label\">Reuse This Work</span></a></li>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns front-matter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column\" id=\"introduction\">\n<p id=\"introduction\">Most of our work on <em>Our World in Data</em> focuses on data and research on human well-being and prosperity.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But we are just one of many species on Earth, and our demand for resources \u2013 <a href=\"http://ourworldindata.org/land-use\">land</a>, water, food, and shelter \u2013 shapes the environment for other wildlife too.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>For millennia, humans have been reshaping ecosystems, directly through competition and hunting of other animals, and indirectly through <a href=\"http://ourworldindata.org/deforestation\">deforestation</a> and land use changes for <a href=\"http://ourworldindata.org/environmental-impacts-of-food\">agriculture</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can find all our data, visualizations, and writing related to biodiversity on this page. It aims to provide context on how biodiversity has changed in the past; the state of wildlife today; and how we can use this knowledge to build a future path where humans and other species can thrive on our shared planet.</p>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column\">\n<div class=\"wp-container-65e6e27f56380 wp-block-group related-topics\">\n<p>Related topics</p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/land-use\">Land use</a></li><li><a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/fish-and-overfishing\">Fish and overfishing</a></li><li><a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions\">CO\u2082 and Greenhouse Gas Emissions</a></li><li><a href=\"http://ourworldindata.org/forests-and-deforestation\">Deforestation</a></li></ul>\n</div>\n</div>\n</div>\n\n\n\n\t<block type=\"key-insights\">\n\t\t<title>Key insights on Biodiversity</title>\n <slug>key-insights-on-biodiversity</slug>\n <insights>\n\t<block type=\"key-insight\">\n\t\t<title is-hidden=\"0\">On average, there has been a large decline across tens of thousands of wildlife populations since 1970</title>\n <slug>on-average-there-has-been-a-large-decline-across-tens-of-thousands-of-wildlife-populations-since-1970</slug>\n <content>\n\n<p>One of the most widely-quoted, but misunderstood, metrics on biodiversity is the Living Planet Index.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Living Planet Index tries to summarize the average change in population size of tens of thousands of studied animal populations. It distills this change into a single number. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>It’s important to note that this data is not globally representative: some regions have much more data available than others. Biodiversity data is much more limited in the tropics, for example.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>What it reports is the <em>average</em> decline in animal population sizes since 1970. This does not tell us the:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Number of species lost;</li><li>Number of populations or individuals that have been lost;</li><li>Number or percentage of species or populations that are declining;</li><li>Number of extinctions.</li></ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Since 1970, then, the size of animal populations for which data is available have declined by 69%, on average. The decline for some populations is much larger; for some, it\u2019s much smaller. And, in fact, many populations have been <em>increasing</em> in size. We cover this in the next key insight.</p>\n\n\n <block type=\"prominent-link\" style=\"is-style-thin\">\n <link-url>https://ourworldindata.org/living-planet-index-decline</link-url>\n <title></title>\n <content></content>\n <figure></figure>\n </block>\n\n\t<div class=\"wp-block-owid-technical-text\">\n\t\t\n\n<h5>What you should know about this data</h5>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>The Living Planet Project \u2013 which produces the Living Planet Index \u2013 is led by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and World Wildlife Fund (WWF).{ref}WWF (2022) Living Planet Report 2022 \u2013 Building a nature-positive society. Almond, R.E.A., Grooten, M., Juffe Bignoli, D. & Petersen, T. (Eds). WWF, Gland, Switzerland.{/ref}<br></li><li>Every two years, a new Living Planet Index report is published. This presents the latest high-quality data we have on animal populations, but also increases in global coverage with every new release.<br></li><li>The underlying data included in the Living Planet Index comes from a combination of published scientific articles, online databases, and government reports.<br></li><li>The Living Planet Index aggregates observations on changes in population size, and similar metrics, across tens of thousands of animal populations. Its 2022 report included figures across 30,000 wildlife populations. This captures everything from frogs to elephant species, rhinos to owls, from every continent on Earth. But even 30,000 populations are only a small fraction of the world\u2019s wildlife.<br></li><li>This data is not globally representative: some regions have much more data available than others. Biodiversity data is much more limited in the tropics, for example.<br></li><li>The Living Planet Index only includes figures on vertebrate species \u2013 mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians. It does not include insects, corals, fungi, or plants.<br></li><li>Its final index is the average change in population size across <em>all</em> of the included animal populations. This figure is not representative of every population and is sensitive to outliers.{ref}Leung, B., Hargreaves, A. L., Greenberg, D. A., McGill, B., Dornelas, M., & Freeman, R. (2020). <a href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2920-6\">Clustered versus catastrophic global vertebrate declines</a>. Nature, 588(7837), 267-271.{/ref}</li></ul>\n\n\n\t</div>\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/global-living-planet-index\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;\"></iframe>\n\n</content>\n\t</block>\n\n\t<block type=\"key-insight\">\n\t\t<title is-hidden=\"0\">Not all animal populations are in decline; around half have increasing numbers</title>\n <slug>not-all-animal-populations-are-in-decline-around-half-have-increasing-numbers</slug>\n <content>\n\n<p>The Living Planet Index reports that there has been a large average decline across more than 30,000 animal populations.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But, reducing the state of global biodiversity into a single figure is a problem. It hides a huge diversity of changes in animal populations within the dataset.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Living Planet Project also shows us what percentage of studied populations have increased, decreased, and remained stable since 1970.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Almost half of these animal populations have <em>increased</em>. This is shown in the chart.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Understanding the broad range of changes in populations is crucial if we\u2019re to stop biodiversity loss \u2013 we need to know that not all animal populations are declining. We need to also know which populations are doing well and <em>why</em> they\u2019re doing well.</p>\n\n\n <block type=\"prominent-link\" style=\"is-style-thin\">\n <link-url>https://ourworldindata.org/living-planet-index-understanding</link-url>\n <title></title>\n <content>\n\n<p></p>\n\n</content>\n <figure></figure>\n </block>\n\n\t<div class=\"wp-block-owid-technical-text\">\n\t\t\n\n<h5>What you should know about this data</h5>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>The Living Planet Project \u2013 which produces the Living Planet Index \u2013 is led by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and World Wildlife Fund (WWF).{ref}WWF (2022) Living Planet Report 2022 \u2013 Building a nature-positive society. Almond, R.E.A., Grooten, M., Juffe Bignoli, D. & Petersen, T. (Eds). WWF, Gland, Switzerland.{/ref}<br></li><li>Every two years, a new Living Planet Index report is published. This presents the latest high-quality data we have on animal populations, but also increases in global coverage with every new release.<br></li><li>The underlying data included in the Living Planet Index comes from a combination of published scientific articles, online databases, and government reports.<br></li><li>The Living Planet Index aggregates observations on changes in population size, and similar metrics, across tens of thousands of animal populations. Its 2022 report included figures across 30,000 wildlife populations. This captures everything from frogs to elephant species, rhinos to owls, from every continent on Earth. But even 30,000 populations are only a small fraction of the world\u2019s wildlife.<br></li><li>This data is not globally representative: some regions have much more data available than others. Biodiversity data is much more limited in the tropics, for example.<br></li><li>The Living Planet Index only includes figures on vertebrate species \u2013 mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians. It does not include insects, corals, fungi, or plants.<br></li><li>Its final index is the average change in population size across <em>all</em> of the included animal populations. This figure is not representative of every population and is sensitive to outliers.{ref}Leung, B., Hargreaves, A. L., Greenberg, D. A., McGill, B., Dornelas, M., & Freeman, R. (2020). <a href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2920-6\">Clustered versus catastrophic global vertebrate declines</a>. Nature, 588(7837), 267-271.{/ref}</li></ul>\n\n\n\t</div>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1899\" height=\"1324\" src=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/10/Share-of-populations-increasing-and-declining-Living-Planet-Index.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-53591\" srcset=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/10/Share-of-populations-increasing-and-declining-Living-Planet-Index.png 1899w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/10/Share-of-populations-increasing-and-declining-Living-Planet-Index-400x279.png 400w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/10/Share-of-populations-increasing-and-declining-Living-Planet-Index-789x550.png 789w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/10/Share-of-populations-increasing-and-declining-Living-Planet-Index-150x105.png 150w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/10/Share-of-populations-increasing-and-declining-Living-Planet-Index-768x535.png 768w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/10/Share-of-populations-increasing-and-declining-Living-Planet-Index-1536x1071.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1899px) 100vw, 1899px\" /></figure>\n\n</content>\n\t</block>\n\n\t<block type=\"key-insight\">\n\t\t<title is-hidden=\"0\">Wild mammals have declined by 85% since the rise of humans</title>\n <slug>wild-mammals-have-declined-by-85-since-the-rise-of-humans</slug>\n <content>\n\n<p>A diverse range of mammals once roamed the planet. This changed quickly and dramatically with the rising number of humans over the course of the last 100,000 years. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over this period, wild terrestrial mammal biomass has declined by an estimated 85%. This is shown in the chart.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This looks at the change in wild mammals on the basis of <em>biomass</em>. This means that each animal is measured in tonnes of carbon that it holds. This is a function of its body mass.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In an extended period between 50,000 to 10,000 years ago, hundreds of the world\u2019s largest mammals were wiped out. This is called the Quaternary megafauna extinction event.\u00a0</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Humans were the main driver of this, killing off species through overhunting and changes to their habitats. What\u2019s staggering is how <em>few</em> humans were alive at this time: <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/world-population-1750-2015-and-un-projection-until-2100?country=Our+World+In+Data~OWID_WRL\">fewer than 5 million people</a> across the world.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since then, wild mammals have continued to decline. A lot of this has been driven by the expansion of human agriculture into wild habitats.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But, the future can be very different. We have the opportunity to restore wild mammals by reducing hunting and poaching, and cutting the amount of land that we use for farming.</p>\n\n\n <block type=\"prominent-link\" style=\"is-style-thin\">\n <link-url>https://ourworldindata.org/wild-mammal-decline</link-url>\n <title></title>\n <content></content>\n <figure></figure>\n </block>\n\n\t<div class=\"wp-block-owid-technical-text\">\n\t\t\n\n<h5><strong>What you should know about this data</strong></h5>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>These estimates come from a combination of studies:<ul><li>Figures 100,000 and 10,000 years ago come from the work of Anthony Barnosky.{ref}Barnosky, A. D. (2008). Megafauna biomass tradeoff as a driver of Quaternary and future extinctions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(Supplement 1), 11543-11548.{/ref}</li><li>Figures for the year 1900 come from the work of Vaclav Smil.{ref}Smil, V. (2011). Harvesting the biosphere: What we have taken from nature. MIT Press.{/ref}</li><li>Figures for 2015 (labeled as \u2018Today\u2019) come from the study of biomass distribution on Earth by researchers Yinon Bar-On, Rob Phillips, and Ron Milo, published in the <em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</em>.{ref}Bar-On, Y. M., Phillips, R., & Milo, R. (2018). <a href=\"https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1711842115\">The biomass distribution on Earth</a>. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(25), 6506-6511.{/ref}</li></ul></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Only <em>terrestrial</em> mammals are included in these estimates. Marine mammals, such as whales, are excluded.<br></li><li>These estimates compare mammals on the basis of <em>biomass</em>. This means that each animal is measured in tonnes of carbon that it holds. This is a function of its body mass.<br></li><li>To calculate the biomass of a taxonomic group, the researchers multiply the carbon stock for a single organism by the number of individuals in that group. In humans, for example, they would calculate the average carbon quantity of a person (about 15%) and multiply it by the human population.<br></li><li>These figures are approximate and come with significant uncertainty, for two key reasons: <ul><li>The total number of wild mammals is highly uncertain. This is particularly true for wild mammal populations in the distant past.</li><li>In these calculations, researchers multiply the number of animals by the <em>average</em> mass of each species and assume that this mass is constant over time.</li></ul></li></ul>\n\n\n\t</div>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1664\" height=\"1624\" src=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/04/Decline-of-wild-mammals.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-42536\" srcset=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/04/Decline-of-wild-mammals.png 1664w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/04/Decline-of-wild-mammals-400x390.png 400w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/04/Decline-of-wild-mammals-564x550.png 564w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/04/Decline-of-wild-mammals-150x146.png 150w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/04/Decline-of-wild-mammals-768x750.png 768w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/04/Decline-of-wild-mammals-1536x1499.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1664px) 100vw, 1664px\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<p></p>\n\n</content>\n\t</block>\n\n\t<block type=\"key-insight\">\n\t\t<title is-hidden=\"0\">Wild mammals make up only a few percent of the world\u2019s mammals</title>\n <slug>wild-mammals-make-up-only-a-few-percent-of-the-world-s-mammals</slug>\n <content>\n\n<p>In the chart, we see the distribution of mammals on Earth.{ref}Bar-On, Y. M., Phillips, R., & Milo, R. (2018). <a href=\"https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1711842115\">The biomass distribution on Earth</a>. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(25), 6506-6511.{/ref} These estimates compare mammals on the basis of <em>biomass</em>. This means that each animal is measured in tonnes of carbon that it holds. This is a function of its body mass. Each rectangle represents one million tonnes of carbon.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wild mammals make up just 4% of global mammal biomass. This includes marine and land-based mammals.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The other 96% is humans and our livestock.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The dominance of humans is clear. Alone, we account for around one-third of mammal biomass. Almost ten times greater than wild mammals. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our livestock then accounts for almost two-thirds. Cattle weigh almost ten times as much as all wild mammals combined. The biomass of all of the world\u2019s wild mammals is about the same as our sheep.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Poultry is not included here. But for birds, the distribution is similar: poultry biomass is more than twice that of wild birds.</p>\n\n\n <block type=\"prominent-link\" style=\"is-style-thin\">\n <link-url>https://ourworldindata.org/wild-mammals-birds-biomass</link-url>\n <title></title>\n <content>\n\n<p></p>\n\n</content>\n <figure></figure>\n </block>\n\n\t<div class=\"wp-block-owid-technical-text\">\n\t\t\n\n<h5><strong>What you should know about this data</strong></h5>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>This data comes from the study of biomass distribution on Earth by researchers Yinon Bar-On, Rob Phillips, and Ron Milo, published in the <em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</em>.{ref}Bar-On, Y. M., Phillips, R., & Milo, R. (2018). <a href=\"https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1711842115\">The biomass distribution on Earth</a>. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(25), 6506-6511.{/ref}<br></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>These estimates compare mammals on the basis of <em>biomass</em>. This means that each animal is measured in tonnes of carbon that it holds. This is a function of its body mass.<br></li><li>To calculate the biomass of a taxonomic group, the researchers multiplied the carbon stock for a single organism by the number of individuals in that group. In humans, for example, they calculate the average carbon quantity of a person and multiply by the human population. If you want to quickly estimate your carbon biomass: calculate 15% of your weight.<br></li><li>These figures are approximate and come with significant uncertainty because the total number of <em>wild</em> mammals is highly uncertain.</li></ul>\n\n\n\t</div>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"6450\" height=\"7533\" src=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/03/Distribution-of-earths-mammals.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-41947\" srcset=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/03/Distribution-of-earths-mammals.png 6450w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/03/Distribution-of-earths-mammals-342x400.png 342w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/03/Distribution-of-earths-mammals-471x550.png 471w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/03/Distribution-of-earths-mammals-128x150.png 128w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/03/Distribution-of-earths-mammals-768x897.png 768w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/03/Distribution-of-earths-mammals-1315x1536.png 1315w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 6450px) 100vw, 6450px\" /></figure>\n\n</content>\n\t</block>\n\n\t<block type=\"key-insight\">\n\t\t<title is-hidden=\"0\">Thanks to conservation efforts, some wild mammals are making a comeback</title>\n <slug>thanks-to-conservation-efforts-some-wild-mammals-are-making-a-comeback</slug>\n <content>\n\n<p>We have already seen that many animal populations have increased in the last decades. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mammals in Europe are a prime example. Many of the region\u2019s iconic mammal species \u2013 such as the Eurasian beaver, European bison, and brown bear \u2013 have been making a return.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the chart, we see the average change in the population size of several mammal species in Europe. The studied time span differs from animal to animal, as the chart shows.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example between 1960 and 2016, populations of brown bears increased by an average of 44%. Between 1977 and 2016, populations of Eurasian otters increased by an average of 300%.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Conservation efforts have played an important role in the return of these mammals, but it is not the only reason for this positive development. One important change is that the rise in agricultural productivity made it possible that agricultural land <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/land-use-agriculture-longterm?stackMode=relative&country=DEU~GBR~FRA~SWE~PRT~ITA~BEL~NLD\">has declined</a> across Europe, giving more habitat back to wildlife. Countries brought in hunting quotas or even complete bans on hunting. And some species \u2013 such as the European bison \u2013 were brought back through well-managed re-introduction programs.</p>\n\n\n <block type=\"prominent-link\" style=\"is-style-thin\">\n <link-url>https://ourworldindata.org/europe-mammal-comeback</link-url>\n <title></title>\n <content>\n\n<p></p>\n\n</content>\n <figure></figure>\n </block>\n\n\t<div class=\"wp-block-owid-technical-text\">\n\t\t\n\n<h5><strong>What you should know about this data</strong></h5>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>This data comes from the <a href=\"https://rewildingeurope.com/wildlife-comeback-report-2022/\">Wildlife Comeback Report 2022</a>. This is published by a coalition of conservation organizations, including the Zoological Society of London; Birdlife International; and Rewilding Europe.{ref}Ledger, S.E.H., Rutherford, C.A., Benham, C., Burfield, I.J., Deinet, S., Eaton, M., Freeman, R., Gray C., Herrando, S., Puleston, H., Scott-Gatty, K., Staneva, A. and McRae, L. (2022) <a href=\"https://rewildingeurope.com/wildlife-comeback-report-2022/\">Wildlife Comeback in Europe: Opportunities and challenges for species recovery</a>. Final report to Rewilding Europe by the Zoological Society of London, BirdLife International and the European Bird Census Council.{/ref}<br></li><li>The dataset aggregates multiple studies of animal populations for each species. For example, 98 populations are included in the final figures for Eurasian beavers.</li></ul>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Researchers calculate the <em>average</em> <em>relative</em> change in population size across all of the studied populations of a given species. The final figure does not tell us the <em>total</em> change in populations across Europe.<br></li><li>Not every species in Europe is increasing in numbers. The underlying report focuses on a selection of mammal species that <em>have</em> made a comeback in recent decades. Many of those that are not shown might still be in decline, or only have stable population numbers.</li></ul>\n\n\n\t</div>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"2408\" height=\"2781\" src=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/05/Wildlife-comeback-in-Europe-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-51611\" srcset=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/05/Wildlife-comeback-in-Europe-1.png 2408w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/05/Wildlife-comeback-in-Europe-1-346x400.png 346w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/05/Wildlife-comeback-in-Europe-1-476x550.png 476w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/05/Wildlife-comeback-in-Europe-1-130x150.png 130w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/05/Wildlife-comeback-in-Europe-1-768x887.png 768w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/05/Wildlife-comeback-in-Europe-1-1330x1536.png 1330w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/05/Wildlife-comeback-in-Europe-1-1773x2048.png 1773w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2408px) 100vw, 2408px\" /></figure>\n\n</content>\n\t</block>\n</insights>\n\t</block>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-container-65e6e28016c08 wp-block-group wp-block-research-and-writing\">\n<h2 id=\"research-writing\">Research & Writing</h2>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-container-65e6e27f6e194 wp-block-group research-and-writing__top\"> <div class=\"wp-block-owid-card with-image\" data-no-lightbox>\n <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/wild-mammal-decline\">\n <figure><img width=\"768\" height=\"440\" src=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/04/Wild-mammal-thumbnail-768x440.png\" class=\"attachment-medium_large size-medium_large\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/04/Wild-mammal-thumbnail-768x440.png 768w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/04/Wild-mammal-thumbnail-400x229.png 400w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/04/Wild-mammal-thumbnail-800x459.png 800w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/04/Wild-mammal-thumbnail-150x86.png 150w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/04/Wild-mammal-thumbnail.png 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" /></figure>\n <div class=\"text-wrapper\">\n <div class=\"title\">Wild mammals have declined by 85% since the rise of humans, but there is a possible future where they flourish</div class=\"title\">\n <div class=\"description\">\n \n\n<p>Wild mammal biomass has declined by 85% since the rise of humans. But we can turn things around by reducing the amount of land we use for agriculture.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hannah Ritchie</p>\n\n\n </div>\n </div>\n </a>\n </div>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-container-65e6e27f6de13 wp-block-group research-and-writing__top-right\"> <div class=\"wp-block-owid-card with-image\" data-no-lightbox>\n <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org//europe-mammal-comeback\">\n <figure><img width=\"768\" height=\"402\" src=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/05/European-mammals-thumbnail-768x402.png\" class=\"attachment-medium_large size-medium_large\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/05/European-mammals-thumbnail-768x402.png 768w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/05/European-mammals-thumbnail-400x209.png 400w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/05/European-mammals-thumbnail-800x419.png 800w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/05/European-mammals-thumbnail-150x79.png 150w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/05/European-mammals-thumbnail.png 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" /></figure>\n <div class=\"text-wrapper\">\n <div class=\"title\">Wild mammals are making a comeback in Europe thanks to conservation efforts</div class=\"title\">\n <div class=\"description\">\n \n\n<p>Hunting and habitat loss drove many large mammals in Europe close to extinction. New data shows us that many of the continent\u2019s mammal populations are flourishing again.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hannah Ritchie</p>\n\n\n </div>\n </div>\n </a>\n </div>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-container-65e6e27f6daa0 wp-block-group\">\n<div class=\"wp-container-65e6e27f6d72f wp-block-group research-and-writing__shorts\">\n<div class=\"wp-container-65e6e27f6caa7 wp-block-group\">\n<h5>More Key articles on Biodiversity</h5>\n\n\n\n<h6><a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/large-mammals-extinction\">The largest mammals have always been at the greatest risk of extinction \u2013 this is still the case today</a></h6>\n\n\n\n<p>Hannah Ritchie</p>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-container-65e6e27f6cfab wp-block-group\">\n<h6><a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/living-planet-index-decline\">Living Planet Index: what does an average decline of 69% really mean?</a></h6>\n\n\n\n<p>Hannah Ritchie</p>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-container-65e6e27f6d38e wp-block-group\"></div>\n</div>\n</div>\n</div>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<h4>Living Planet Index</h4>\n\n\n\t<div class=\"wp-block-owid-grid research-and-writing__sub-category\">\n\t\t\n <div class=\"wp-block-owid-card with-image\" data-no-lightbox>\n <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/living-planet-index-decline\">\n <figure><img width=\"768\" height=\"404\" src=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/03/Living-Planet-Index-thumbnail-768x404.png\" class=\"attachment-medium_large size-medium_large\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/03/Living-Planet-Index-thumbnail-768x404.png 768w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/03/Living-Planet-Index-thumbnail-400x210.png 400w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/03/Living-Planet-Index-thumbnail-800x421.png 800w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/03/Living-Planet-Index-thumbnail-150x79.png 150w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/03/Living-Planet-Index-thumbnail.png 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" /></figure>\n <div class=\"text-wrapper\">\n <div class=\"title\">Living Planet Index: what does an average decline of 69% really mean?</div class=\"title\">\n <div class=\"description\">\n \n\n<p>Hannah Ritchie</p>\n\n\n </div>\n </div>\n </a>\n </div>\n\n <div class=\"wp-block-owid-card with-image\" data-no-lightbox>\n <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/living-planet-index-understanding\">\n <figure><img width=\"768\" height=\"402\" src=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Living-planet-index-shares-increasing-declining-thumbnail-768x402.png\" class=\"attachment-medium_large size-medium_large\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Living-planet-index-shares-increasing-declining-thumbnail-768x402.png 768w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Living-planet-index-shares-increasing-declining-thumbnail-400x209.png 400w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Living-planet-index-shares-increasing-declining-thumbnail-800x419.png 800w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Living-planet-index-shares-increasing-declining-thumbnail-150x79.png 150w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Living-planet-index-shares-increasing-declining-thumbnail.png 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" /></figure>\n <div class=\"text-wrapper\">\n <div class=\"title\">How the Living Planet project helps us understand how the world\u2019s wildlife is changing</div class=\"title\">\n <div class=\"description\">\n \n\n<p>Hannah Ritchie</p>\n\n\n </div>\n </div>\n </a>\n </div>\n\n <div class=\"wp-block-owid-card with-image\" data-no-lightbox>\n <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/living-planet-index-region\">\n <figure><img width=\"768\" height=\"402\" src=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/10/Living-planet-index-region-thumbnail-768x402.png\" class=\"attachment-medium_large size-medium_large\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/10/Living-planet-index-region-thumbnail-768x402.png 768w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/10/Living-planet-index-region-thumbnail-400x209.png 400w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/10/Living-planet-index-region-thumbnail-800x419.png 800w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/10/Living-planet-index-region-thumbnail-150x79.png 150w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/10/Living-planet-index-region-thumbnail.png 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" /></figure>\n <div class=\"text-wrapper\">\n <div class=\"title\">How did the Living Planet Index change in different world regions?</div class=\"title\">\n <div class=\"description\">\n \n\n<p>Hannah Ritchie</p>\n\n\n </div>\n </div>\n </a>\n </div>\n\n <div class=\"wp-block-owid-card with-image\" data-no-lightbox>\n <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/faq-living-planet-index\">\n <figure><img width=\"768\" height=\"404\" src=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/03/Living-Planet-Index-thumbnail-768x404.png\" class=\"attachment-medium_large size-medium_large\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/03/Living-Planet-Index-thumbnail-768x404.png 768w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/03/Living-Planet-Index-thumbnail-400x210.png 400w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/03/Living-Planet-Index-thumbnail-800x421.png 800w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/03/Living-Planet-Index-thumbnail-150x79.png 150w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/03/Living-Planet-Index-thumbnail.png 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" /></figure>\n <div class=\"text-wrapper\">\n <div class=\"title\">FAQs on the Living Planet Index</div class=\"title\">\n <div class=\"description\">\n \n\n<p>Hannah Ritchie</p>\n\n\n </div>\n </div>\n </a>\n </div>\n\n\t</div>\n\n\n<h4>Mammals</h4>\n\n\n\t<div class=\"wp-block-owid-grid research-and-writing__sub-category\">\n\t\t\n <div class=\"wp-block-owid-card with-image\" data-no-lightbox>\n <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/wild-mammals-birds-biomass\">\n <figure><img width=\"768\" height=\"402\" src=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Mammal-distribution-thumbnail-768x402.png\" class=\"attachment-medium_large size-medium_large\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Mammal-distribution-thumbnail-768x402.png 768w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Mammal-distribution-thumbnail-400x209.png 400w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Mammal-distribution-thumbnail-800x419.png 800w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Mammal-distribution-thumbnail-150x79.png 150w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Mammal-distribution-thumbnail.png 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" /></figure>\n <div class=\"text-wrapper\">\n <div class=\"title\">Wild mammals make up only a few percent of the world\u2019s mammals</div class=\"title\">\n <div class=\"description\">\n \n\n<p>Hannah Ritchie</p>\n\n\n </div>\n </div>\n </a>\n </div>\n\n <div class=\"wp-block-owid-card with-image\" data-no-lightbox>\n <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/elephant-populations\">\n <figure><img width=\"768\" height=\"404\" src=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Elephants-768x404.png\" class=\"attachment-medium_large size-medium_large\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Elephants-768x404.png 768w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Elephants-400x210.png 400w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Elephants-800x421.png 800w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Elephants-150x79.png 150w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Elephants.png 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" /></figure>\n <div class=\"text-wrapper\">\n <div class=\"title\">The state of the world’s elephant populations</div class=\"title\">\n <div class=\"description\">\n \n\n<p>Hannah Ritchie</p>\n\n\n </div>\n </div>\n </a>\n </div>\n\n <div class=\"wp-block-owid-card with-image\" data-no-lightbox>\n <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/rhino-populations\">\n <figure><img width=\"768\" height=\"402\" src=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Rhino-thumbnail-768x402.png\" class=\"attachment-medium_large size-medium_large\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Rhino-thumbnail-768x402.png 768w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Rhino-thumbnail-400x209.png 400w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Rhino-thumbnail-800x419.png 800w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Rhino-thumbnail-150x79.png 150w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Rhino-thumbnail.png 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" /></figure>\n <div class=\"text-wrapper\">\n <div class=\"title\">The state of the world’s rhino populations</div class=\"title\">\n <div class=\"description\">\n \n\n<p>Hannah Ritchie</p>\n\n\n </div>\n </div>\n </a>\n </div>\n\n <div class=\"wp-block-owid-card with-image\" data-no-lightbox>\n <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/whaling\">\n <figure><img width=\"768\" height=\"402\" src=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Whaling-featured-image-768x402.png\" class=\"attachment-medium_large size-medium_large\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Whaling-featured-image-768x402.png 768w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Whaling-featured-image-400x209.png 400w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Whaling-featured-image-800x419.png 800w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Whaling-featured-image-150x79.png 150w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Whaling-featured-image.png 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" /></figure>\n <div class=\"text-wrapper\">\n <div class=\"title\">Global whaling peaked in the 1960s</div class=\"title\">\n <div class=\"description\">\n \n\n<p>Hannah Ritchie</p>\n\n\n </div>\n </div>\n </a>\n </div>\n\n\t</div>\n\n\t<div class=\"wp-block-owid-grid research-and-writing__sub-category\">\n\t\t\n\t</div>\n\n\n<h4>Extinctions</h4>\n\n\n\t<div class=\"wp-block-owid-grid research-and-writing__sub-category\">\n\t\t\n <div class=\"wp-block-owid-card with-image\" data-no-lightbox>\n <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/mass-extinctions\">\n <figure><img width=\"768\" height=\"404\" src=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/03/Extinctions-thumbnail-768x404.png\" class=\"attachment-medium_large size-medium_large\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/03/Extinctions-thumbnail-768x404.png 768w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/03/Extinctions-thumbnail-400x210.png 400w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/03/Extinctions-thumbnail-800x421.png 800w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/03/Extinctions-thumbnail-150x79.png 150w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/03/Extinctions-thumbnail.png 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" /></figure>\n <div class=\"text-wrapper\">\n <div class=\"title\">There have been five mass extinctions in Earth’s history</div class=\"title\">\n <div class=\"description\">\n \n\n<p>Hannah Ritchie</p>\n\n\n </div>\n </div>\n </a>\n </div>\n\n <div class=\"wp-block-owid-card with-image\" data-no-lightbox>\n <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/quaternary-megafauna-extinction\">\n <figure><img width=\"768\" height=\"402\" src=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Quaternary-extinctions-featured-image-768x402.png\" class=\"attachment-medium_large size-medium_large\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Quaternary-extinctions-featured-image-768x402.png 768w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Quaternary-extinctions-featured-image-400x209.png 400w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Quaternary-extinctions-featured-image-800x419.png 800w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Quaternary-extinctions-featured-image-150x79.png 150w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Quaternary-extinctions-featured-image.png 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" /></figure>\n <div class=\"text-wrapper\">\n <div class=\"title\">Did humans cause the Quaternary Megafauna Extinction?</div class=\"title\">\n <div class=\"description\">\n \n\n<p>Hannah Ritchie</p>\n\n\n </div>\n </div>\n </a>\n </div>\n\n <div class=\"wp-block-owid-card with-image\" data-no-lightbox>\n <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/extinction-risk-definition\">\n <figure><img width=\"768\" height=\"402\" src=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2023/02/IUCN-Thumbnail-01-768x402.png\" class=\"attachment-medium_large size-medium_large\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2023/02/IUCN-Thumbnail-01-768x402.png 768w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2023/02/IUCN-Thumbnail-01-400x209.png 400w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2023/02/IUCN-Thumbnail-01-800x419.png 800w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2023/02/IUCN-Thumbnail-01-150x79.png 150w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2023/02/IUCN-Thumbnail-01-1536x804.png 1536w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2023/02/IUCN-Thumbnail-01-2048x1072.png 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" /></figure>\n <div class=\"text-wrapper\">\n <div class=\"title\">What does it mean for a species to be at risk of extinction?</div class=\"title\">\n <div class=\"description\">\n \n\n<p>Hannah Ritchie</p>\n\n\n </div>\n </div>\n </a>\n </div>\n\n\t</div>\n\n\n<h4>Other articles on Biodiversity</h4>\n\n\n\t<div class=\"wp-block-owid-grid research-and-writing__sub-category\">\n\t\t\n <div class=\"wp-block-owid-card with-image\" data-no-lightbox>\n <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/pollinator-dependence\">\n <figure><img width=\"768\" height=\"301\" src=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/07/Pollinator-thumbnail-768x301.png\" class=\"attachment-medium_large size-medium_large\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/07/Pollinator-thumbnail-768x301.png 768w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/07/Pollinator-thumbnail-400x157.png 400w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/07/Pollinator-thumbnail-800x314.png 800w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/07/Pollinator-thumbnail-150x59.png 150w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/07/Pollinator-thumbnail-1536x603.png 1536w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/07/Pollinator-thumbnail.png 1600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" /></figure>\n <div class=\"text-wrapper\">\n <div class=\"title\">How much of the world\u2019s food production is dependent on pollinators?</div class=\"title\">\n <div class=\"description\">\n \n\n<p>Hannah Ritchie</p>\n\n\n </div>\n </div>\n </a>\n </div>\n\n <div class=\"wp-block-owid-card with-image\" data-no-lightbox>\n <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/yields-habitat-loss\">\n <figure><img width=\"348\" height=\"183\" src=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/09/Biodiversity-habitat.png\" class=\"attachment-medium_large size-medium_large\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/09/Biodiversity-habitat.png 348w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/09/Biodiversity-habitat-150x79.png 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 348px) 100vw, 348px\" /></figure>\n <div class=\"text-wrapper\">\n <div class=\"title\">To protect the world\u2019s wildlife we must improve crop yields \u2013 especially across Africa<br></div class=\"title\">\n <div class=\"description\">\n \n\n<p>Hannah Ritchie</p>\n\n\n </div>\n </div>\n </a>\n </div>\n\n <div class=\"wp-block-owid-card with-image\" data-no-lightbox>\n <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/life-on-earth\">\n <figure><img width=\"768\" height=\"402\" src=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Life-on-earth-thumbnail-768x402.png\" class=\"attachment-medium_large size-medium_large\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Life-on-earth-thumbnail-768x402.png 768w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Life-on-earth-thumbnail-400x209.png 400w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Life-on-earth-thumbnail-800x419.png 800w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Life-on-earth-thumbnail-150x79.png 150w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Life-on-earth-thumbnail.png 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" /></figure>\n <div class=\"text-wrapper\">\n <div class=\"title\">Humans make up just 0.01% of Earth\u2019s life \u2013 what\u2019s the rest?</div class=\"title\">\n <div class=\"description\">\n \n\n<p>Hannah Ritchie</p>\n\n\n </div>\n </div>\n </a>\n </div>\n\n <div class=\"wp-block-owid-card with-image\" data-no-lightbox>\n <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/life-by-environment\">\n <figure><img width=\"768\" height=\"402\" src=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Life-on-earth-environments-768x402.png\" class=\"attachment-medium_large size-medium_large\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Life-on-earth-environments-768x402.png 768w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Life-on-earth-environments-400x209.png 400w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Life-on-earth-environments-800x419.png 800w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Life-on-earth-environments-150x79.png 150w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Life-on-earth-environments.png 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" /></figure>\n <div class=\"text-wrapper\">\n <div class=\"title\">Oceans, land, and deep subsurface: how is life distributed across environments?</div class=\"title\">\n <div class=\"description\">\n \n\n<p>Hannah Ritchie</p>\n\n\n </div>\n </div>\n </a>\n </div>\n\n\t</div>\n\n\t<div class=\"wp-block-owid-grid research-and-writing__sub-category\">\n\t\t\n <div class=\"wp-block-owid-card with-image\" data-no-lightbox>\n <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/how-many-species-are-there\">\n <figure><img width=\"768\" height=\"402\" src=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Number-of-species-thumbnail-768x402.png\" class=\"attachment-medium_large size-medium_large\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Number-of-species-thumbnail-768x402.png 768w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Number-of-species-thumbnail-400x209.png 400w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Number-of-species-thumbnail-800x419.png 800w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Number-of-species-thumbnail-150x79.png 150w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2022/11/Number-of-species-thumbnail.png 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" /></figure>\n <div class=\"text-wrapper\">\n <div class=\"title\">How many species are there?</div class=\"title\">\n <div class=\"description\">\n \n\n<p>Hannah Ritchie</p>\n\n\n </div>\n </div>\n </a>\n </div>\n\n\t</div></div>\n\n\n\n\t<block type=\"all-charts\"></block>",
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"excerpt": {
"rendered": "Explore the diversity of wildlife across the planet. What are species threatened with? What can we do to prevent biodiversity loss?",
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},
"date_gmt": "2022-12-19T21:01:00",
"modified": "2024-01-11T10:40:52",
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"authors_name": [
"Hannah Ritchie",
"Fiona Spooner"
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