Conservation efforts focused on protecting forests using carbon-based policies also benefit mammal diversity, new research at Kent has found.
Conservation efforts focused on protecting forests using carbon-based policies also benefit mammal diversity, new research at Kent has found.
To help mitigate the effects of climate change, policies have been developed across the world to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through avoided deforestation. Much of this deforestation is caused by large-scale agriculture and extractive industries in developing tropical countries.
The UN’s Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) framework, and, more recently, the High Carbon Stock (HCS) Approach, aim to identify and conserve forest areas that retain a lot of carbon, which would otherwise be released into the atmosphere if felled, therefore justifying protection.
Major agricultural companies, such as those growing oil palm, are now using these carbon mechanisms as part of global commitments to ‘zero deforestation’.
Read more at University of Kent
Image: This is a clouded leopard caught by camera trap during research. (Credit: Nick Deere, University of Kent and Esther Baking, Universiti Malaysia Sabah)
