< PREVIOUS SLIDE SLIDE 1 of 3 NEXT SLIDE > Only a global pact on the scale of the Paris Agreement on climate change will save the natural world from irreversible collapse, the World Wide Fund for Nature said © Jordi Chias/ PA

Conservationists have issued a demand for urgent international action after a major report uncovered an unprecedented crisis in nature that threatens to devastate the world economy and imperil humanity itself.

Only a global pact on the scale of the Paris Agreement on climate change will save the natural world from irreversible collapse, the World Wide Fund for Nature said after publishing a report showing a cataclysmic decline in global wildlife populations.

Global vertebrate populations have fallen by 60 per cent since 1970 as human activity destroys their natural habitats in grasslands, forests, waterways and oceans, the organisation said.

Until the turn of the 20th century, humanity’s consumption of the world’s natural resources was smaller than Earth’s ability to replenish itself.

But over the past 50 years expanding agricultural activity and the over-exploitation of natural resources to feed a growing world population, particularly its booming middle class, has pushed many ecosystems to the brink of collapse.

“Humans are living beyond the planet’s means and wiping out life on earth in the process,” the report warns.

From the savannahs of Africa to the rain forests of South America and oceans across the world, few wildlife populations have been spared.

While great attention has been given to the impact of poaching on elephants and rhinos in Africa, the story has been more dismal in Latin America and the Caribbean, where 89 percent of indigenous mammals like the jaguar and anteater have been wiped out.

Statistics are just as grim in the world’s rivers, lakes and seas. More than 80 per cent of freshwater populations has vanished, with freshwater fish accounting for a higher rate of extinction than any other vertebrate. Since 1950 nearly 6bn tonnes of fish and other seafood have been removed from the world’s oceans.

For surviving populations the impact of human activity is also stark: some 90 per cent of the world’s seabirds have plastic in their stomach, compared to just 5 per cent in 1960. Plastic pollution now stretches across the seas of the earth, even reaching the bottom of the Marianas Trench in the western Pacific, the deepest natural point in the world.

With just a quarter of the planet’s land now free from human impact, the space bird, reptile and mammal populations' need to recover is growing ever more limited.

“We are the first generation to know we are destroying our planet and the last that can do anything about it,” said Tanya Steele, chief executive of the WWF. “The collapse of global wildlife populations is a warning sign that nature is dying."

As tragic as the collapse of wildlife populations is, the impact of habitat loss will have a profound impact on human wellbeing, conservationists say.

Man’s encroachment on nature threatens agriculture itself, because crops pollinated by animals account for 35 per cent of global food production, while habitat loss means that the soil for crops to grow is not being replenished with nutrients.

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The loss of South American rainforests has reduced rainfall thousands of miles away, also imperilling crop production. As many as 70,000 species of plants are used commercially or in medicine, posing a danger to efforts to fight disease and protect industry.

Yet the issue, conservationists say, is not being taken as seriously as climate change — even though protecting nature can help mitigate the impact of global warming — which is why it is essential for big business and government to come together to find a solution to the crisis.

“The statistics are scary, but all hope is not lost,” said Ken Norris, director of science at the Zoological Society of London, which collaborated on the report.

“We have an opportunity to design a new way forward that allows us to coexist sustainably with the wildlife we depend on.”