The global emphasis on halting forest loss has failed to recognize the biodiversity and ecosystem services provision of non-forest biomes such as the Brazilian Cerrado. Here, we stress the urgent need to address their destruction, including at the upcoming UN Conference of the Parties (COP28), and for coordinated efforts to protect these non-forest ecosystems amid the climate crisis.
The potential ecological costs and cobenefits of REDD: a critical review and case study from the Amazon region
The potential ecological costs and cobenefits of REDD: a critical review and case study from the Amazon region
Analysis of possible REDD program interventions in a large-scale Amazon landscape indicates that even modest flows of forest carbon funding can provide substantial cobenefits for aquatic ecosystems, but that the functional integrity of the landscape’s myriad small watersheds would be best protected under a more even spatial distribution of forests. Because of its focus on an ecosystem service with global benefits, REDD could access a large pool of global stakeholders willing to pay to maintain carbon in forests, thereby providing a potential cascade of ecosystem services to local stakeholders who would otherwise be unable to afford them.