The list of endangered species is getting longer and longer. Even if the “animal winners” show the effectiveness of protecting nature and species.
2022 was again not a good year for endangered wildlife species and species protection as a whole. More than 41,500 of the approximately 147,500 recorded animal and plant species are now classified as endangered. “This is more than ever,” said Georg Scattolin, head of international program for WWF Austria, in a broadcast on Thursday.
This year’s WWF “Living Planet Report” shows a dramatic decline in species: populations of observed wildlife species have declined by an average of 69% since 1970. The nature conservation organization warns of a “catastrophic escalation of extinction species world” and calls for more political action on nature conservation in Austria and beyond. Because up to a million species could go extinct in the coming decades if the trend is not reversed.
Enjoy sea eagles, sharks and rays
Rays of hope and “animal winners” would show that species protection is effective, a prime example being the native white-tailed eagle. In 2000 it was still considered extinct in Austria. Today, there are around 50 breeding pairs of Austria’s heraldic animal and therefore a stable and constantly growing population. A milestone was also reached in 2022 in the protection of sharks and rays: 54 species of the land shark family, six species of hammerhead sharks and 37 species of guitarfish are now more strictly protected worldwide – their international trade only will be allowed in the future if their stocks are not threatened by it.
In the Chinese calendar, 2022 was the year of the tiger. According to current counts, since the last tiger year in 2010, there has been a 50 percent increase to 4,500 to 5,000 tigers. Humpback whales in Australia were also removed from the endangered species list by 2022. Their numbers have increased from 1,500 to 40,000 to 65,000 in Australian waters. And in the United States and Cape Verde, two of their top three breeding grounds, loggerhead turtle nests have recently been found at their highest rate in decades.
“Winning animals give hope. They show what is possible in times of species extinction, climate crisis and pandemics,” said Scattolin. There is also a need for action in Austria – the biodiversity strategy presented in December is also waiting to be implemented.
Reindeer, rhinos and sturgeons are in decline
Reindeer are one of the “loser animals” in 2022, as the population of the world’s largest wild animal population has dropped from 417,000 in 2014 to 250,000 animals. In 2000, this population living in the Taimyr region, in the Russian Arctic, was one million animals. The species is particularly threatened by the climate crisis and poaching. According to the WWF, white rhinos and sturgeon are also doing worse. “Global warming, encroachment, overfishing and poaching make it difficult for them and many other species to survive,” Scattolin said.
Rhinos have lived on Earth for over 50 million years, surviving ice ages. Colossi are brutally chased and hunted for their horns. In the last nine years, however, the white rhino population in Africa has dropped from 20,600 to nearly 16,000 animals due to poaching. To date, seven of the eight sturgeon species found in Europe are threatened with extinction; As of this year, the eighth is officially classified as critically endangered. The smooth stick, whose last stocks in Europe were swimming in the Danube, has been declared extinct by the IUCN. The world is bad for sturgeon species. As all 26 surviving species are critically endangered according to the 2022-updated Red List, nearly two-thirds of them are directly threatened with extinction.
Furthermore, more than a third of all hoverfly species in Europe and therefore 314 out of 890 species are threatened by changes in land use, pesticide use and the climate crisis, according to the new Red List of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN ). A serious loss: Hoverflies are the second most important pollinators after bees and help control aphids. Flying performers can also stay in the air like hummingbirds and do lightning-like maneuvers both forward and backward.
Not a good year for emperor penguins
The emperor penguin also had a bad year. Because in the summer, the Antarctic Conference failed to designate the largest penguin species as a specially protected species. In October, two countries again blocked the planned designation of marine protected areas in the Southern Ocean. In November, the UN climate conference ended in disappointment. With current CO₂ emissions, between 80 and 100% of all known emperor penguin colonies are at risk of disappearing by 2100.
In Austria, the otter is also on the target list. It was only in December that the Carinthia state government extended its murder law for another two years, in breach of EU law. Salzburg also issued an ordinance in 2022 to kill 57 otters. According to WWF, the claim that animals are primarily responsible for endangering fish stocks does not stand up to any scientific scrutiny. Fish suffer mainly from the construction, pollution and overexploitation of water bodies. Otters serve only as scapegoats.
(APA/red)