The starkest picture of wildlife loss in Canada to date: WWF's new Living Planet Report Canada

Persistent decline in wildlife population comes at a time of weakening protections for species and their habitats

TORONTO, Sept. 22, 2025 /CNW/ - World Wildlife Fund Canada's Living Planet Report Canada (LPRC) 2025: Wildlife at Home reveals the most severe average decline in the size of monitored wildlife populations in Canada since WWF-Canada began reporting two decades ago.

Using the largest dataset to date, the report presents the clearest — and starkest— picture of wildlife loss in Canada yet. More than half (52%) of the species studied are decreasing in abundance. On average, every species group included — birds, fish, mammals, and reptiles and amphibians — is trending in the wrong direction.

Snowy owl, Alberta © Don Getty (CNW Group/World Wildlife Fund Canada)

LPRC 2025 comes at a time when governments across Canada are prioritizing rapid development, while loosening regulations that protect nature and species at risk. Urgent action is needed now to restore, protect and steward the diverse habitats species call home.

Troubling trends across habitats and species groups
The biggest declines were seen in grassland habitats, where wildlife populations declined by 62 per cent on average since 1970. In forests, mammal populations declined by 42 per cent, on average, over the last five decades. And throughout Canada, species of global conservation concern, those found on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, saw their populations decline by 43 per cent, on average.

While some species such as sea otters and raptors are doing better than the national average, others, like bats, caribou and snowy owls, are doing far worse.

The latest findings are based on the current Canadian Living Planet Index (C-LPI), which relied on 5,099 populations records for 910 mammal, bird, amphibian, reptile and fish species from 1970 to 2022.

While this series of reports is not designed for year-to-year comparison due to slight changes in data and methodology, each adds to the picture of how Canadian wildlife is faring over time. As the data available grows, the declines observed in the C-LPI are growing as well.

The window to halt and reverse biodiversity loss is closing
The LPRC comes at a pivotal time: a mere five years from the deadline for Canada to reach the 2030 targets set in the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and Canada's 2030 Nature Strategy. Coined the Canadian Species Index, the C-LPI is used as a domestic indicator to measure Canada's progress towards halting and reversing biodiversity loss.

It also follows the passing of new legislation, federally and provincially, which give governments sweeping new powers to fast-track major infrastructure projects by bypassing environmental safeguards and legal protections for species at risk.

"In nature, everything is connected. The degradation of a habitat or loss of a single species can echo far beyond it. Once a population is declining, the trends become harder to reverse," Megan Leslie, President and CEO of WWF-Canada, said. "The findings of the Living Planet Report Canada are nature's warning light, and it's telling us wildlife and their habitats are threatened. This warning also gives us an opportunity to turn things around before it's too late. It is imperative that we act now to protect and restore the nature that not only sustains wildlife, but also the heart of our economies."

"Even in a nature-rich country like Canada, wildlife is struggling. The trends uncovered in the Living Planet Report Canada show populations are continuing to head in the wrong direction. The longer we take to respond, the steeper the decline will become," James Snider, VP of Science, Knowledge and Innovation at WWF-Canada, said. "Following five decades of persistent declines in wildlife populations, now is not the time to walk back protections for wildlife and habitats. Rather, Canada has a growing responsibility to scale up efforts to restore, protect and steward what remains of species' habitats, their homes."

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Notes to editors

• The Living Planet Report Canada 2025 included 910 vertebrate species. Amongst those, the aggregated trend from 1970 to 2022 shows declining wildlife populations, with an average decline of 10 per cent.
• The percentage change in the index reflects the average proportional change in monitored animal population sizes relative to a baseline of 1970. It does not reflect the number of individual animals lost, nor the number of populations lost.
• The Canadian Living Planet Index was first released by WWF-Canada in 2007, with both methodological and data updates published in 2017 and 2020. Please note that successive iterations of the C-LPI are not directly comparable as the dataset is continually growing. The 2025 C-LPI uses the most comprehensive dataset to date.
• It is important to note the significance of the 1970 baseline as some large-scale impacts on nature and wildlife were already apparent before the start of the index, explaining why trends sometimes deviate from expectations.
• Notably, the rate of change from 1970–2010 and 2010–2022 is similar, suggesting that the rate of decline in monitored population abundance isn't necessarily worsening, but that marginal, incremental declines are building over time.
• The global Living Planet Index was adopted by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to help track progress toward the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. The C-LPI is a domestic indicator (coined Canadian Species Index) for Canada's 2030 Nature Strategy aimed at halting and reversing biodiversity loss in Canada.

Resources:

• For more information, visit wwf.ca/lprc2025
• Click here to download the LPRC 2025 executive summary
• Click here to download the full LPRC 2025 report
• Click here for species photos

About the Living Planet Report Canada
The Living Planet Report Canada presents a comprehensive overview of the state of wildlife in Canada though the C-LPI. Much like the stock market measures economic trends over time, the C-LPI is a biodiversity indicator used to track trends in Canadian vertebrate wildlife abundance over time.

About World Wildlife Fund Canada
WWF-Canada is committed to equitable and effective conservation actions that restore nature, reverse wildlife loss and fight climate change. We draw on scientific analysis and Indigenous guidance to ensure all our efforts connect to a single goal: a future where wildlife, nature and people thrive. For more information visit wwf.ca.

SOURCE World Wildlife Fund Canada

For further information or to request an interview: Emily Vandermeer, Senior Communications Specialist, [email protected] | 519-616-1556, [email protected]