Study highlights global decline

The most comprehensive survey ever undertaken into the state of the planet paints a worrying picture of decline.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Study highlights global decline

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment was drawn up by 1,300 researchers from 95 nations over a period of four years.

It concludes the way society has obtained its food, fresh water, timber, fibre and fuel over the past 50 years has seriously degraded the environment.

And it warns the worsening situation will compromise efforts to help the many people still blighted by poverty.

Specifically, the current state of affairs is likely to be a road block to the Millennium Development Goals agreed to by the world leaders at the United Nations in 2000, it says.

"Any progress achieved in addressing the goals of poverty and hunger eradication, improved health, and environmental protection is unlikely to be sustained if most of the ecosystem 'services' on which humanity relies continue to be degraded," the report states.