A new atlas reveals where conservation money is best spent. It shows which forests store large amounts of carbon and which are home to a great diversity of animals and plants 鈥� and which do both jobs.
The UN Environment Programme released the maps at the UN climate summit in Poznan, Poland, last week. In this financial climate, 鈥渆very dollar, euro or rupee needs to deliver double, even triple dividends鈥�, says Achim Steiner, UNEP鈥檚 executive director.
鈥淏y pinpointing where high densities of carbon overlap with high levels of biodiversity, the atlas spotlights where governments and investors can deal with two crises for the price of one.鈥�
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The maps reveal that parts of the tropical Andes and Amazon region (see map) are especially high in carbon and biodiversity. They also show where action could be more efficient: for instance, protected areas of Papua New Guinea include just one-tenth of the country鈥檚 high-carbon regions.
Forests absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it in plant material; the amount stored depends on climate and tree species. Protecting forests is important to preserve this function and because felled trees release carbon back into the atmosphere when they are burned or decay.
So far, UN mechanisms for fighting climate change have not paid countries for carbon they store in forests, but negotiators at Poznan will fine-tune a scheme to reward conservation.