Press release
Africa recorded an average 80% decline in the size of monitored vertebrate wildlife populations between 1970 and 2022, according to WWF’s Living Planet Report 2026.
The finding points to the severe pressure on nature across the continent, but the report also shows that recovery is possible when conservation is sustained, communities have a direct stake and the systems driving nature loss begin to change.
The Living Planet Index (LPI), produced by ZSL (Zoological Society of London), draws on almost 35,803 population trends covering 5,790 vertebrate species worldwide. The 80% figure for Africa reflects the cumulative average proportional change in the sizes of monitored animal populations at sites across the region. It does not mean that Africa has lost 80% of all individual wild animals or 80% of its wildlife species.
According to the LPI, there has been a stark 73% decline globally in the average size of monitored wildlife populations over a 52-year period. The report also states that North America registered an average decline of 28%, while Europe and Central Asia registered a decline of 23%. The steepest declines in monitored wildlife populations recorded in Latin America and the Caribbean (95%), Africa (80%) and Asia–Pacific (49%).
Across the world, habitat loss and degradation remain the most frequently reported threats affecting monitored wildlife populations, followed by overexploitation, climate change, pollution, invasive species and disease. These pressures are driven by wider failures in the food, energy and finance systems.
Despite the overall negative trend, around half of the populations included in the global LPI are stable or increasing. The report highlights recoveries involving green turtles, bluefin tuna, tigers and some populations of southern African elephants, demonstrating that clear goals, adaptable plans, sustained action and long-term resilience can produce measurable results.
Yvonne Godo, WWF Regional Director for East and Southern Africa, said: “Recovery is possible, but it must work for people as well as wildlife. Wildlife recovery is not the end of the story; it is the beginning of a new responsibility. The question is not whether recovery is possible, but whether we can create a future in which people and wildlife thrive together.”
African savannah elephants are declining across much of their range and remain Endangered overall. However, some populations in southern Africa are increasing where legal frameworks give local communities a direct stake in managing the land and wildlife they share. These gains took decades and were reinforced by anti-trafficking work, judicial reform and efforts to reduce corruption.
The Congo Basin, home to forest elephants, great apes, bonobos and okapis, is under growing pressure from agricultural expansion, logging, mining, roads and other infrastructure that open and fragment forests. Commercial hunting and ivory poaching further deplete wildlife populations. African forest elephant numbers have fallen by more than 60% over the past decade, driven largely by poaching and habitat loss, according to inventory reports. Their decline also threatens forest regeneration and carbon storage, as elephants disperse the seeds of many large forest trees.
Nadège Nzoyem, WWF Regional Director for the Congo Basin, said: ” Reversing this trend requires coordinated action across governments, civil society and other sectors, with Indigenous Peoples and local communities at the centre. Durable conservation depends on communities, traditional leaders and institutions having the authority, responsibility and tangible benefits needed to safeguard nature.”
The 2026 Living Planet Report cautions that encouraging recoveries must accelerate action rather than create complacency. Conservation interventions remain essential, but they cannot reverse biodiversity loss on their own while the underlying economic systems continue to destroy habitats and intensify climate change.
From negative to positive tipping points
Biodiversity underpins Africa’s economies and societies, providing food, water, clean air, medicine and resilience to climate shocks. Yet the systems that should sustain these benefits are also driving nature loss: food production is the leading cause of habitat destruction, fossil-fuel-based energy drives climate change, and financial flows continue to support activities that harm nature.
The Living Planet Report includes research by the University of Exeter showing that large and complex systems can change rapidly once they cross a threshold into a healthier state and the shift becomes self-reinforcing – faster, cheaper and harder to reverse.
Food and agriculture: Positive change is underway, driven by nature-positive production, more sustainable trade and consumption, healthier diets, and efforts to reduce food loss and waste. These shifts must expand rapidly while protecting livelihoods and food security.
Finance: The financial system remains at an early stage of change. It must stop financing harmful activities, recognise nature and climate as material risks, provide regulatory certainty and help close the annual US$942 billion biodiversity finance gap.
An opportunity for action
Countries can accelerate these shifts by delivering the commitments already agreed under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the Paris Agreement. With UN conferences on biodiversity and climate taking place in the coming months, governments have an opportunity to move decisively from ambition to implementation.
“The Living Planet Report’s finding is a stark warning, but also a mandate for action. As African countries head into Biodiversity COP17 and Climate COP31, and prepare to host COP32 in Addis Ababa, they must advance a coherent agenda that connects biodiversity, climate, land and development priorities. This means moving existing commitments into implementation through adequate and accessible finance, stronger policy alignment and locally led action,” said Durrel Halleson, WWF Africa Head of Policy and Partnerships.
