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UN identifies ‘hotspots’ to Protect Climate and Rare Wildlife

Posted on: Friday, 5 December 2008, 16:49 CST

An atlas issued at the December 1-12 U.N. climate talks in Poznan, Poland, on Friday identified parts of forests from the Amazon to Madagascar where improved protection could both slow global warming and preserve rare wildlife.

The atlas showed forested hotspots with a high diversity of plants and animals that were also large stores of carbon dioxide in soils and trees. The map is intended to assist governments in deciding where to protect forests by curbing logging and clearing of forests.

"It shows overlaps between carbon stored and areas of biodiversity importance," said Barney Dickson, of the World Conservation Monitoring Center of the U.N. Environment Program, during an interview with Reuters.

"This offers the prospect of a double dividend," he said, referring to the atlas.

For instance, if a government wanted to assist gorillas and other great apes, forests in part of the eastern Congo basin could be preserved . And protecting carbon-rich forests in Ecuador could help rare birds and amphibians.

Elsewhere, the atlas identified parts of the Amazon basin near the tip of South Africa, central Papua New Guinea, most of Madagascar and parts of the Philippines as priority areas.

The 187-nation Poznan talks of 11,000 delegates are considering strategies to slow deforestation rates, such as payments to preserve tropical forests. Current rates of deforestation release about 20 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions by humans, led by burning fossil fuels.

Previous U.N. studies have found the world is facing the worst extinction crisis since dinosaurs were wiped out 65 million years ago. 

Destruction of habitats, rising human populations and climate change are among the major contributors to the threat.

Dickson said the atlas, set for expansion next year, was the first to make the overlaps.

"When countries plan they may wish to prioritize action in some areas ahead of others," he said.

According to U.N. data, the world lost 7.3 million hectares (18.04 million acres) of forest each year between 2000 and 2005.

A separate report showed that protecting forests could be easier and have more impact than parallel efforts to curb industrial emissions from factories, power plants and automobiles.

Lessening the rate of deforestation "is commonly seen as a significant, cheap, quick and win-win way to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions," said a report by the Center for International Forestry Research.

Even the upper estimates compare favorably with industrial curbs, the report said.
"The cost estimates vary, from $7 billion to $28 billion per year for halving deforestation.”

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