Ecosystem carbon and biodiversity in thirteen landscapes around the world

Abstract

Impacts on biodiversity are considered one of the main detrimental consequences of changing climates. However, climate change mitigation is also directly influencing biodiversity if it is done by adding ecosystem carbon relative to a reference scenario. Often it has been assumed that adding ecosystem carbon relative to a reference scenario, e.g. by avoiding deforestation and forest degradation, is always beneficial for biodiversity conservation. However, this association has been shown to hold only locally, or with a specific taxonomic or functional group. Our objective was to study this relationship based on expert interviews. We interviewed 115 biodiversity experts on value for biodiversity of various land uses found in 12 landscapes in 7 countries and 5 continents around the world. The experts gave an approximate score from zero to ten on value of the land use types on conservation of the taxon in focus. We found support to the thinking that land uses containing a large amount of ecosystem carbon are associated with a high value for biodiversity conservation but with some notable exceptions. For example converting a native scrubland to an exotic tree plantation was found to have a negative impact on biodiversity. However, in general, biodiversity conservation is in most cases an important co-benefit of climate change mitigation.