Living Planet Index (LPI)

This news release concerns Living Planet Index (LPI) for the Netherlands. The index shows the average population change for almost all species of breeding birds, reptiles, amphibians, butterflies and dragonflies, as well as many of the species of mammals and freshwater fish that occur naturally in the Netherlands.

The Netherlands LPI is a national variant of the global LPI. Although it is calculated in much the same way as the global LPI, there are also some technical differences. In addition, butterflies and dragonflies are included in the Netherlands LPI (but not in the global LPI), while the global LPI includes marine vertebrate species (the Netherlands LPI does not).

The global LPI is calculated every two years by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF); it includes population trends among more than five thousand vertebrate species around the world.