WWF's Living Planet Report 2006, the group's biennial look at the state of planet, measures the ecological footprint – the impact we have on the planet - of 150 countries. Wales ranks 14th in the world ecological footprint table, meaning that we would need three planets if everyone lived like us.

The report shows that the world's Ecological footprint has more than tripled since 1961. The country with the largest footprint is the United Arab Emirates, followed by the United States of America. In fact if everyone consumed resources to the same extent as these countries we would need nearly six planets to sustain their lifestyles. The country with the smallest footprint is Afghanistan.

Rising carbon dioxide emissions are the biggest cause of our ecological impact on the planet. On current projections, this means that as a whole, humanity will need at least two planets' worth of natural resources by 2050.

A map contained in the report, which distorts each country according to its global footprint, dramatically illustrates just how much countries like the UK, America and in Europe and Japan are over consuming resources and literally sucking the rest of the world dry.

Morgan Parry, Head of WWF Cymru said: "We urgently have to face the fact that we are all in serious ecological debt and that we cannot continue to exhaust the Earth's natural reserves without putting something back.

"The average person living in Wales requires a land area of 5.25 global hectares per year to provide resources for their current consumption. This is equivalent to the area of six rugby pitches per person. This means that if everyone in the world lived like the average Welsh person we would need nearly three planets to support our lifestyles.

"It is time to make some vital choices and start living a one planet lifestyle. Such a change, that improves living standards while reducing our impact on the natural world, will not be easy but must start happening now. The cities, power plants and homes we build today will either lock society into damaging over-consumption beyond our lifetimes, or begin to propel this and future generations towards sustainable living."

This degree of over consumption has been increasing year on year since WWF and partners started to collate this report, with demand exceeding supply by about 25 per cent in 2003. This means that it took approximately a year and three months for the Earth to produce the ecological resources we used in that year.

The report has shown that between 1970 and 2003 terrestrial species have declined by 31 per cent, freshwater species by 28 per cent, and marine species by 27 per cent. The Living Planet Report 2006, pulls together various data to compile two indicators of the Earth's well-being.

The first, the Living Planet Index, measures biodiversity, based on trends in more than 3600 populations of 1300 vertebrate species around the world. In all, data for 695 terrestrial, 344 freshwater and 274 marine species were analyzed.

Jonathan Loh, editor of the report said: "To support a world population rising to 9 billion or more, and at the same time conserve the millions of other species we share the planet with, we must move to a new development path built on four principles: protection of natural and managed ecosystems, super-efficient use of resources, moderated consumption, and minimum population growth."

The second index, the Ecological Footprint, measures humanity's demand on the biosphere. Significantly the carbon dioxide footprint, from the use of fossil fuels, was the fastest growing component of our global footprint, increasing more than ninefold from 1961 to 2003.