Since 1970, 73% of global wildlife has been lost, while the world’s population has doubled to 8 billion. Research shows this isn’t a coincidence but that population growth is causing a catastrophic decline in biodiversity.
Our research demonstrates that biodiversity recovery needs to be actively managed, especially in depopulating areas.
If the only variables they accounted for were human population, surface temperature and land use then they’ve omitted one of the biggest influences - pesticides (and other deleterious, persistent chemicals). Also, soils in agricultural management have long been known to be deteriorating due to intensive modern practices, but that may less of a factor.
I haven’t read the report itself, just the abstract. There it looks like they ackgnowledge other parameters, but their main focus in this one is around depopulation in Japan.
Biodiversity change under human depopulation in Japan
Irrespective of human population increase or decrease, biodiversity losses continue among most species studied mainly because of change in agricultural land use, either due to urbanization, disuse and abandonment, or intensification.
