WWF Living Planet Report 2026: 73% wildlife decline, but bluefin tuna and other species recover

Mixed · 2WWF's Living Planet Report 2026 estimates that monitored wildlife populations worldwide have fallen by an average of 73% since 1970. 1 2 Mixed · 2The report also highlights recoveries, and WWF says they show conservation can work; the BBC reports that bluefin tuna have returned in large numbers off the British coast after almost disappearing from UK waters. 1 2 Centre · 1The BBC says overfishing had largely removed the tuna from UK waters by the 1960s, and that the report credits its return to international action including reduced catch quotas, size limits and protected spawning grounds, backed by consumer, chef and retailer campaigns. 1

Left · 1Al Jazeera says Atlantic bluefin tuna had declined by 80% by 2010 and were listed as endangered; it says they are now returning in numbers not seen in generations. Tom Horton of the University of Exeter said coastal communities who had never seen bluefin in British waters now meet them regularly. 2 Centre · 1Hannah Rudd of the Angling Trust told the BBC the recovery was close to an "explosion" in the population and a "golden case study that fisheries management works". 1 Mixed · 2Other recoveries cited include wild tigers, up more than 70% from about 3,200 in 2010 to about 5,700 in 2025; the green sea turtle, which in 2025 became the first marine turtle moved from "endangered" to "least concern"; and elephants, stable or growing in parts of southern Africa. 1 2

Left · 1Al Jazeera adds that mountain gorillas have risen from near extinction in the 1980s to more than 1,100, while Grauer's gorilla numbers have dropped an estimated 60% to about 6,800. 2 Centre · 1The 73% figure measures the average change in population size, not the number of animals lost. WWF and the Zoological Society of London track nearly 36,000 populations of almost 6,000 vertebrate species, and about half are stable or growing. 1 Centre · 1Dr Katie Collins of the Natural History Museum said the index misses plants, insects and other creatures because it covers only vertebrates. 1

Mixed · 2WWF says conservation alone cannot reverse the decline. It names farming and food systems, fossil-fuel energy and finance as the main drivers, and estimates that in 2023 about $7.3 trillion went into activities that harm nature against $220bn for protecting or restoring it. 1 2 Mixed · 2WWF's Mike Barrett said nature is in "freefall" but that the window is "closing" yet "still open, just, if we act now". WWF director general Kirsten Schuijt said progress is under way but "not yet at the scale required". 1 2