How to protect our living planet

The critically endangered Amur tiger is often a target for poachers in China and the Russian Far East. Photo / Getty Images

Element and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) begin a content partnership this month, with a close look at how some of our most endangered species are faring.

Carefully watched by their mother, two Amur tiger cubs play in the snow. At first glance, the footage seems a little unassuming - however the grainy black and white video is much more significant than you might think. Released by WWF staff in February, it's the first time ever that wild Amur tigers have been caught on camera in China.

To gather the 10-second-long video, conservationists laid camera traps across a tiny portion of the tigers' massive 3,600km range and hoped for the best. Amur tigers are thought to roam across remote parts of the Russian Far East, small pockets in the border areas of China and possibly even North Korea, but few know for sure. With a population of about 400, every sighting is precious- but it also means to protect the family from poachers, the location where they were spotted must remain secret.

Just four months earlier, a tiger also tried to enter China, but in a much different way. A routine search of a truck at a checkpoint in Blagoveschensk, Russia, alerted a sniffer dog nicknamed Navigator. Signaling to his handler that something was amiss, bags were quickly discovered filled with an organic substance weighing 1.2 kilograms, and a transparent bag with two fragments of animal jaw weighing 50 grams. Both were hidden beneath the driver's seat and were bound for China.

Forensics revealed the organic substance contained a chopped blend of tiger, bear meat and bones prepared for herbal medicine. The jaw belonged to a tiger cub.

Sometimes it may seem that for every hard-earned win for the environment, there are two equally heartfelt losses. For every species saved, another is threatened. So after decades of dedicated conservation effort, are we going backwards or forwards? And importantly, what does all this mean for our kids?

In 2014, WWF released the latest edition of the Living Planet Report, the world's most comprehensive report on the health of our planet. The report tracks the changing state of wildlife, habitats and our demand on natural resources.

The results were startling. Globally, species populations have declined 52 per cent since 1970. In New Zealand, the population of our native Maui's dolphins has dropped from 1500 to just 55 over the same period. We cut trees faster than they mature, harvest more fish than oceans replenish and emit more carbon into the atmosphere than forests and oceans can absorb.

It's sobering and. frankly, a little overwhelming. It's easy to think that protecting the environment should be treated as a luxury-but our societies and economies depend on a healthy planet. All of us need nutritious food, fresh water and clean air, as well as an acceptable level of health, well-being and opportunity. We are all invested in this world we share.

Our kids can inherit a better world than the one we live in now. To do this requires practical actions, such as shifting investment away from the causes of environmental problems and towards the solutions; making fair, far-sighted and ecologically informed choices about how we manage resources; preserving our remaining natural capital, protecting and restoring important ecosystems and habitats; and producing better and consuming more wisely.

As an example, earlier this year it was reported that through close management and the creation of new reserves, numbers of wild tigers in India had increased
by more than 57% since 2006. It's a huge step in the right direction.

We are all connected, and collectively we have the potential to find and adopt the solutions that will safeguard the future of this, our one and only planet.

A copy of the WWF Living Planet Report can be downloaded from panda.org/lpr