Africa recorded an average 80 per cent decline in the size of monitored wildlife populations between 1970 and 2022, a new report has revealed.
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Living Planet Report 2026 points to severe pressure on nature across the continent.
However, the report says recovery is possible when conservation is sustained and communities have a direct stake.
The Living Planet Index (LPI), produced by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), draws on nearly 35,803 population trends covering 5,790 vertebrate species worldwide.
The 80 per cent figure for Africa reflects the cumulative average proportional change in the sizes of monitored animal populations at sites.
It does not mean Africa has lost 80 per cent of all individual wild animals or 80 per cent of its wildlife species.
According to the report, there has been a stark 73 per cent decline globally in the average size of monitored wildlife populations over the 52-year period.
The report states that North America registered an average decline of 28 per cent, while Europe and Central Asia registered a decline of 23 per cent.
The steepest declines in monitored wildlife populations were recorded in Latin America and the Caribbean (95 per cent), Africa (80 per cent), and the Asia-Pacific (49 per cent).
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 food, energy and financial 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.
WWF regional director for East and Southern Africa Yvonne Godo 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,” she said.
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.
Unsustainable hunting and poaching further deplete wildlife populations.
African forest elephant numbers have fallen by more than 60 per cent over past decades, driven largely by illegal killing for ivory and habitat loss, according to WWF wildlife inventory reports.
Their decline also threatens forest regeneration, ecosystem services and carbon storage.
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 report cautions that encouraging recoveries must accelerate action rather than induce complacency.
Conservation interventions remain essential, but they cannot reverse biodiversity loss on their own while underlying economic systems continue to destroy habitats and intensify climate change.
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 large, 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.
On 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.
Meanwhile, 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.
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.
