Carbon Emission Reduction Strategies May Undermine Tropical Biodiversity Conservation, Conservationists Warn.
It seems astonishing that attempts to reduce carbon emissions could have an adverse effect on anything but new research is showing that it is possible!
Their warning comes only days ahead of the Cancun COP 16 climate change talks (Nov. 29 to Dec. 10, 2010).
REDD is a United Nations designed mechanism for carbon emission trading that provides financial compensation to developing countries for improved management and protection of their forest resources. If it works, REDD could strengthen the global fight against climate change, and create an opportunity for carbon-rich tropical countries to protect threatened biodiversity as a co-benefit of maintaining forests and the carbon they store.
Writing in the journal Carbon Balance and Management, a network of conservation scientists, use data for Indonesia, a species-rich tropical country and the world’s third largest source of carbon emissions, to highlight ways in which emission reduction strategies could turn sour for wildlife.
The researchers explained that, ‘Biodiversity and forest carbon are correlated at a global scale but this is not the case at sub-national levels in Indonesia. This creates a trade-off between the emission reduction potential and biodiversity value of different ecosystems. In short, the highest carbon savings are not necessarily located in places with the highest levels of species diversity.’
The authors, from Southeast Asia, Europe and the USA, compiled studies of wildlife, plants, land-cover and carbon emissions to show that carbon-dense peat swamp forests, focal ecosystems for REDD in Indonesia, do not coincide with areas supporting the highest concentrations of threatened biodiversity. Peat swamp forests attract the bulk of REDD funds— holding around 8 times more carbon than other lowland forests, and provide habitat for high profile species such as orang-utan, tigers and Asian elephants. However, when we look at overall numbers of plants, mammals and birds, especially species of greatest conservation concern, we find that peat forests typically support lower densities and fewer species than other lowland forest types.
The paper points out that preferential targeting of peatland under REDD could intensify pressures to establish oil palm and paper/pulp plantations in forests that are more important for biodiversity conservation. This problem is not unique to Indonesia, but is a concern throughout the tropics.
The authors argue that a regulatory framework is urgently needed to guide implementation of REDD, and recommend three ways to ensure that effective carbon emissions reduction strategies also deliver substantial long-term biodiversity co-benefits in tropical countries—home to 51 % of the world’s 48,170 threatened species. They urge developing countries to prepare their own explicit national targets for ecosystem and species protection across all native ecosystem types. Using these targets, priority ecosystems and threatened species under-represented in the protected area network should be identified. Co-financing from REDD can then be mobilised to redefine acceptable land-use practices within priority areas needed to fill biodiversity conservation gaps. In this way, REDD will offset opportunity costs of foregone development, and ensure that carbon emission reductions deliver biodiversity gains where they are most needed.

Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by the University of Kent in the UK.

Reference:
Gary D. Paoli, Philip L. Wells, Erik Meijaard, Mathew J. Struebig, Andrew J.
Marshall, Krystof Obidzinski, Aseng Tan, Andjar Rafiastanto, Betsy Yaap, J.W.
Ferry Slik, Alexandra Morel, Balu Perumal, Niels Wielaard, Simon Husson, Laura
D’Arcy. Biodiversity Conservation in the REDD. Carbon Balance and Management,
2010; 5 (1): 7 DOI: 10.1186/1750-0680-5-7

Global Warming, Pollution climate change, emissions