Living Planet Index

Living Planet Index

The Living Planet Index (LPI) is an indicator of the state of global biological diversity, based on trends in vertebrate populations of species from around the world.

The LPI provides the general public, scientists and policy-makers with information on trends in the abundance of the world’s vertebrates and offers insights into which habitats or ecosystems have species that are declining most rapidly. This information can be used to define the impact humans are having on the planet and for guiding actions to address biodiversity loss.

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is working in collaboration with the Institute of Zoology (IoZ), the research division of the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), to further develop the project which began in 1997.

The Living Planet Index was originally developed by WWF in collaboration with UNEP-WCMC, the biodiversity assessment and policy implementation arm of the United Nations Environment Programme. UNEP-WCMC collected much of the data for the index in the first few years of the project.

Results are presented biennially in the WWF Living Planet Report, on the World Wide Web, and in publications such as the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and the UN Global Environment Outlook. National and regional reports are now being produced to focus on relevant issues at a smaller scale.

Between 1970 and 2007, the index fell by 28%. This global trend suggests that we are degrading natural ecosystems at a rate unprecedented in human history.