According to WWF’s 2026 Living Planet Report, monitored vertebrate wildlife populations saw an average decline of 73% between 1970 and 2022. Yet, the report is subtitled: The Science of Hope.

According to the authors, the two are not contradictory. The decline is not irreversible: where people have worked persistently, nature has made a comeback. However, this downturn is driven by three interconnected systems: energy, food, and finance. Therefore, transforming them requires far more than merely protecting individual species.

Following the structure of the report, below we examine the numbers, the success stories, the positive tipping points, and our chances of meeting the 2030 targets.