London, UK - New research has revealed a rapid decline in global wildlife populations over the last 50 years, with scientists warning that urgent action is needed to avoid a "point of no return."

A report from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has revealed that global wildlife populations have dropped by an average of 73% over the last 50 years.

The steepest declines took place in Latin American and the Caribbean, which saw a fall of 95%, followed by the African continent which stood at 76%.

Revealed in the WWF's Living Planet Report for 2024, the statistics are based on almost 35,000 animal population trends across thousands of species.

"Nature is disappearing at an alarming rate," the report states in its executive summary. "While some changes may be small and gradual, their cumulative impacts can trigger a larger, faster change."

"When cumulative impacts reach a threshold, the change becomes self-perpetuating, resulting in substantial, often abrupt and potentially irreversible change. This is called a tipping point," the Living Planet Report reads.

Specifically, scientists warn of a mass die-off of coral reefs, a tipping point in the Amazon rainforest that has serious implications for climate change, the melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, and other "tipping points."

The report warns that global nations are "falling short" of goals set out in various agreements, and that more than half of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals will be missed.

"We are dangerously close to tipping points for nature loss and climate change," ZSL chief executive Matthew Gould was cited by The Guardian as saying.

"But we know nature can recover, given the opportunity, and that we still have the chance to act."