Fish in the Oder and certain insects: From the point of view of the environmental foundation WWF, stocks in Germany are also among the losers of the year in the animal world. This emerges from the organization’s year-end balance sheet on Thursday. With endangered animals from other regions of the world, the selected losers are therefore representative of the fate of thousands of species. Since 1970, the examined vertebrate populations have declined by an average of 69 percent worldwide. More than 42,100 animal and plant species are now on the Red List as threatened. However, the WWF also names winners – and thus examples of successful protection. In this series of photos you can see a selection of this year’s wildlife winners and losers.
The WWF emphasized that if the destruction of nature continues to increase rapidly, we humans will also be among the big losers. The agreement on biodiversity that was passed before Christmas at the World Nature Summit in Montreal, Canada, gives hope. “The implementation has to work now. We don’t get a second chance to save our planet,” affirmed WWF board member Christoph Heinrich.