Humans running up huge 'overdraft' with the planet says new WWF report

Lahore, 10 July: Standards of living and human development will start to fall by 2030 unless humans stop using more natural resources than the planet can replace, according to a new report released by WWF, the conservation organization, 49 days before the start of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD).
WWF's Living Planet Report 2002 shows that humans are currently running a huge deficit with the Earth - using over 20 percent more natural resources each year than can be regenerated - and this figure is growing each year. Projections based on likely scenarios of population growth, economic development and technological change, show that by 2050, humans will consume between 180 percent and 220 percent of the Earth's biological capacity. According to the report, this means that unless governments take urgent action, by 2030, human welfare, as measured by average life expectancy, educational level, and world economic product will go into decline.
"The fact that we live on a bountiful planet, but not a limitless one, presents our leaders with a clear challenge," said Richard Garstang, Conservation Adviser WWF - Pakistan while speaking on this occasion. "Ensuring access to basic resources and improving the health and livelihoods of the world's poorest people can not be tackled separately from maintaining the integrity of natural ecosystems. Unless we ensure the health of those ecosystems, we will never be able to guarantee an acceptable standard of living for much of the world's population."
According to the Living Planet Report, the Earth has about 11.4 billion hectares of productive land and sea space - or 1.9 hectares of productive land to provide for each of the 6 billion people on the planet. The global ecological footprint - or consumption of natural resources - is 2.3 hectares per person. However, while the footprint of the average African or Asian consumer being less than 1.4 hectares per person in 1999, the average Western European's footprint was about 5.0 hectares, and the average North American's was about 9.6 hectares.
The decline in freshwater species has been particularly dramatic, with 54 percent decline on average in the populations of 195 species living in rivers and wetland ecosystems. Marine species are also under threat - with an average decline of 35 percent in 217 species, while forest species populations show a 15 percent decline in 282 species. WWF believes that governments could reverse some of these negative trends and put humanity back on a path to sustainable development if they address some key issues. These include improving the resource efficiency with which goods and services are produced - in particular moving energy supplies away from fossil fuels and promoting energy-efficient technologies, buildings and transport systems; encouraging equitable and sustainable consumption; and conserving and restoring natural ecosystems to maintain their biological productivity and diversity. The launch was followed by an exclusive screening of the Green Turtle film-WWF's TV center's maiden production.

For further information:

Rauf Hameed
Communications Manager
WWF - Pakistan
tel: 042-5862360
media@wwf.org.pk