Species Conservation Report: The Winners and Losers 2022

This year’s “Living Planet Report” shows a dramatic decline in species: Populations of observed wild species have collapsed by an average of 69 percent since 1970.

The conservation organization warns of a “catastrophic escalation of global species extinction” and calls for more political action on nature conservation in Austria and beyond.

If the trend is not reversed, up to a million species could go extinct in the coming decades. However, bright spots and ‘animal winners’ would show that active species protection is effective.

These are the losers in 2022:

reindeer
The world’s largest wild reindeer population has plummeted from 417,000 in 2014 to 250,000. In 2000, this population in the Taimyr region of the Russian Arctic numbered one million animals. The climate crisis and poaching in particular threaten Rudolf’s wild relatives.

Breitmaulnashorn
Rhinoceroses have lived on our planet for more than 50 million years and have survived ice ages. The behemoths are brutally chased and poached for their horn. In the past nine years, stocks in Africa have fallen from 20,600 to nearly 16,000 animals due to poaching.

Kaiser penguin
A bad year for the emperor penguin. 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. 80 and 100 percent of all known emperor penguin colonies are at risk of nearly disappearing by 2100.

gliding
According to the new World Conservation Union (IUCN) Red List, more than a third of all hoverfly species in Europe (314 out of 890 species) are threatened by land use change, pesticide use and the climate crisis. Hoverflies are the second most important pollinators after bees.

Sturgeon and paddle fishing
Seven of the eight sturgeon species found in Europe are threatened with extinction and since this year the eighth has also been officially classified as critically endangered. The slippery cock, whose last stocks swam in the Danube in Europe, has been declared extinct there by the IUCN. The sturgeon species are in a dramatic situation all over the world: according to the Red List updated in 2022, all 26 species that still exist are under acute threat, almost two-thirds of them are even directly threatened with extinction.

Otters in Austria
It wasn’t until December that Carinthia’s state government extended otter-killing regulations for another two years, in violation of EU law. Salzburg also issued a regulation in 2022 to kill 57 otters. The claim that the animals are primarily responsible for endangering fish stocks does not stand up to scientific research. Fish especially suffer from the construction, pollution and overexploitation of water bodies.

These are the winners 2022:

White-tailed eagle in Austria
In 2000, white-tailed eagles were still considered extinct in Austria. Today there are about 50 breeding pairs of the Austrian heraldic animal and thus a steadily growing, stable population. An absolute success story in nature management in our own country.

Tiger
According to current counts, since 2010 there has been a 50 percent increase to 4,500 to 5,000 tigers. The figures in Nepal are particularly encouraging: there are again 355 animals of the endangered big cats.

sharks and rays
In November, the CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) world conference for the protection of endangered species decided to better protect ground sharks, hammerheads and guitar rays. International trade in them is only allowed if it does not endanger stocks. More than 90 percent of all internationally traded shark and ray species are thus protected from unregulated and unsustainable trade.

Humpback whale in Australia
The humpback whales have been removed from the endangered species list in 2022. Their numbers have increased from 1,500 to 40,000 to 65,000 in Australian waters. Nevertheless, acute dangers such as fishing, shipping and pollution remain.

Loggerhead turtle
In the United States and Cape Verde, two of their top three breeding grounds, loggerhead turtle nests have been found in recent decades at an all-time high. In Cape Verde alone, the number of nests has increased twentyfold since 2015.