there's a desperate plea for Global support to protect the world's animals and plants it comes after a new report has shown that Wildlife populations have fallen by nearly 70 percent since 1970. the worldwide fund for nature says governments businesses and the public must take action to reverse the destruction of biodiversity Sean Dilley reports striding with Grace content with its natural habitat in the Amazon but maybe that's because this big cap doesn't understand the danger that lurks around the corner the conservation charity the worldwide fund for nature says the breakup of natural habitat and climate change means animal populations here are in particular Danger the Charity's latest living planet report warns that Global Wildlife populations have fallen by nearly 70 in around 50 years the study which assesses the abundance of almost 32 000 populations of 5230 species of animals birds reptiles amphibians and fish around the world suggests that population sizes declined by 69 percent on average between 1970 and 2018. species living in freshwater lakes and wetlands have fallen by an average of 83 percent the most impacted species live here in Latin America and the Amazon where deforestation is destroying trees and the species who rely on them to sustain life population sizes here have fallen by 94 over the past half century according to the report other areas such as North America Asia and Europe have seen a smaller decline but climate change threatens species everywhere the UK is one of the most nature depleted countries in the world with just half of its nature richness remaining the worldwide fund for nature says it's now or never if we're to restore the natural world the government says it's committed to halting the decline of nature by 2030 and that it will continue to improve on Wildlife laws but the WWF says it needs to act very quickly if it wants to protect species from danger and distinction Sean Dilly BBC News and we can get more now on that from the WWF which has just released that report there UK chief executive Tanya Steele joins me now Tanya thank you very much for your time that is a lot of loss in a very short time uh nearly 70 decline in just under 50 years put that in in further context for us Tanya I mean this is our most comprehensive report ever and it is a stark warning for us if wildlife and its habitats don't survive then neither will we and if we were to treat the human population as one species that we were monitoring it would be the equivalent of wiping out the entire populations of China Europe Oceania the Americas uh combined so this is a devastating set of impacts for our natural world and probably what is even more devastating is that we have reported these declines repeatedly but we have seen very little action from world leaders to start to Halt this loss and to put it onto a past for recovery and in fact you were telling me about this when we spoke at cop 26 in Glasgow last year Tanya since then have you seen any plans any initiatives from governments anywhere around the world that give you hope but someone's actually taking this seriously really doing something about it I mean I think that for the most part many world leaders have been missing in action and we really do need those leaders to act and Galvanize now because nature is the linchpin in the fight against climate change and the loss of our natural world is shocking enough but we have the great apparel of climate change a post a really kind of heading to us at high speed so to not address the loss in our natural world means we have no hope at all of reaching one and a half degree targets and we have a very short window of opportunity there is a global leaders meeting in Montreal in December where a new action plan needs to be formed to really start to Halt this loss of Nature and actually start to recover it and anything less anything less than an agreement to do that would be an utter betrayal of future Generations I'm just trying to understand why it isn't being taken seriously enough I mean yes the words are all there aren't they people say we must do more to support our Wildlife our environment but why is the time the resources uh the the money the energy not being put into the sort of plans that you want to see to help protect animals and plants really it's taken time to get this issue up the political agenda but I mean just the summer we've had we've all experienced across the world here in the UK with soaring temperatures of 40 degrees Wildlife wildfires across the whole of Europe and biblical star floods level floods in Pakistan is starting to bring this to the fore and I think realistically we know that this is not just an issue that affects the Ecology of our world it is affecting our economies and it is affecting our ability to function as a society so we see this is an opportunity for world leaders to recognize that that we cannot continue to Kick the Can down the road and we have to actually focus on efforts Beyond conservation which are important but actually start to reach into our supply chains our economies and really how we work because we are destroying so much nature by the way we live and work and consume as human beings and it is no longer sustainable Tanya thank you very much for your time today Tanya Steele uh the wwf's UK chief executive