WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 19, 2019) — A new report showing wildlife are declining across the globe — in many cases dramatically — highlights the urgent need for investments in proactive, collaborative conservation. The latest update to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List found that of the 105,000 species assessed globally, not a single one had shown signs of significant improvement. The National Wildlife Federation president and CEO Collin O’Mara urged U.S. policymakers to act now to recover wildlife and reverse this alarming trend.

“Across America and around the globe, report after report shows us that wildlife are in crisis. This is not just a crisis overseas—it’s a crisis here in our own backyard," O’Mara said. “In the United States, we have a long history of working collaboratively to bring wildlife back from the brink, but accelerating habitat loss, spreading of invasive species and disease, and cascading climate impacts are threatening to overwhelm our natural systems. We urge Congress to tackle the wildlife crisis here at home by passing the bipartisan Recovering America’s Wildlife Act, which invests in the proactive, collaborative solutions we know will ensure a future where wildlife and people thrive.”

The recently introduced Recovering America’s Wildlife Act has 70 bipartisan co-sponsors and will fund conservation efforts for more than 12,000 species of wildlife and plants in need of assistance by providing $1.397 billion in dedicated annual funding for proactive, collaborative, on-the-ground conservation efforts in every state and territory. The bill will also hasten the recovery of many of the 1,600 U.S. species already listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act.