| November 16, 2009 |  |
Climate Treaty Plans to Slow Heat-Trapping Emissions from Tropical Deforestation Must Include Rules to Protect Biodiversity, Top Scientists Conclude
WASHINGTON (November 16, 2009) – In a paper published today in the scientific journal Current Biology, an international group of leading conservation scientists conclude that plans to reduce heat-trapping emissions from tropical forests must include provisions to protect plants and animals from extinction.
"More than half of all species on the planet live in tropical forests, and they are threatened by deforestation," said paper co-author Stuart Pimm, professor at the Nicholas School of the Environment of Duke University and a board member of the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). "Some forests have species of plants and animals at far greater risk of extinction than others, so any international agreement must ensure that the forests with the species most threatened by deforestation are among those that are protected."
The report comes just a few weeks before representatives from nearly 200 countries meet in Copenhagen to try to finalize an international climate treaty that includes such a forest preservation plan. The plan, called Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD), would provide funding for developing countries to preserve their tropical forests. The destruction of these forests is estimated to cause approximately 15 percent of the world's global warming emissions.
Delegates negotiating the treaty are still deliberating over REDD's details, but the provision likely will stipulate that polluters, such as owners of coal-fired power plants, will be able to fund preservation of forests in tropical countries as an alternative way to reduce heat-trapping emissions. Funding also likely will come from countries that donate some of the revenue from the sale of the permits -- or allowances -- that polluters must obtain in order to emit carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases.
"There are two key reasons to preserve tropical forests," said Alan Grainger, the paper's lead author and professor at the School of Geography of the University of Leeds in Great Britain. "An international climate treaty should preserve tropical forests to reduce carbon emissions, but it also must take into account that protecting the forests can slow the loss of plant and animal species."
If REDD emphasizes slowing deforestation, then governments and market forces are likely to focus on areas of threatened forest that provide the greatest reduction in emissions at the least cost.
"It may be more expensive to preserve specific forests that are rich in biodiversity," said Doug Boucher, director of the Tropical Forest and Climate Initiative at UCS and another paper author. "REDD should be crafted to encourage polluters and governments to contribute additional funding to protect those forests."
The paper also recommends that nonprofit organizations and governments change their funding priorities to emphasize forests that are low in carbon but abundant in wildlife to ensure these forests are not overlooked for those high in carbon. In addition, the paper calls for climate treaty negotiators to work with the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity to ensure that the rules that are written to implement the international biodiversity treaty are effective. Finally, it warns that protecting forests in countries that participate in REDD may unintentionally put other forests at risk.
"If we only focus on preserving forests in countries that are part of REDD, loggers and ranchers could move to other countries, such as the Congo, Madagascar and Columbia," said Thomas Lovejoy of the Heinz Center and a paper co-author. "That's why we must establish international rules that encourage projects in areas with high biodiversity regardless of whether a country participates in REDD."
Countries that are not interested or able to manage a program that monitors and verifies forest preservation, as required by REDD, could protect individual forests, said Lovejoy.
"Delegates at Copenhagen must heed this paper's findings to ensure we adequately protect tropical forests and their treasure of species and simultaneously help the world's climate," said Lovejoy.
The paper's collaborators, in addition to Grainger, Boucher, Lovejoy, and Pimm, include Peter Frumhoff, of UCS; William Laurance of James Cook University, Australia, and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute; Peter Raven of the Missouri Botanical Garden; Jeffrey McNeely of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature; Manfred Niekisch of the Frankfurt Zoological Society, Germany; Navjot Sodhi of the National University of Singapore; and Oscar Venter of the University of Queensland, Australia.
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