The Need for Carbon Finance Schemes to Tackle Overexploitation of Tropical Forest Wildlife

Background

Tropical forests serve as essential carbon sinks, storing nearly half of Earth’s terrestrial carbon. However, ongoing deforestation and forest degradation threaten their carbon sequestration capacity. Carbon-based payment for ecosystem services (CBPES) schemes, such as REDD+, aim to combat deforestation but often overlook defaunation’s role in forest carbon loss. Unsustainable hunting and wildlife trade drive defaunation, disrupting seed dispersal and tree recruitment. This leads to shifts in forest composition toward species with lower wood density and reduced carbon storage. This article argues for urgently integrating wildlife conservation into carbon finance schemes to prevent further losses in aboveground biomass and ensure climate mitigation’s long-term effectiveness.

Goals and Methods

The study evaluates how wildlife loss affects tropical forest carbon storage and highlights the absence of defaunation considerations in current carbon finance policies. The authors review literature on animal-driven seed dispersal and tree recruitment, demonstrating that large-seeded, carbon-dense tree species depend on frugivorous vertebrates for regeneration. They then assess how overexploitation-induced defaunation alters forest composition, reducing aboveground biomass. Finally, they examine the financial implications of ecosystem service loss due to hunting and propose three cost-effective interventions for CBPES schemes: securing land tenure for Indigenous peoples and local communities, supporting local conservation efforts to prevent overexploitation, and prioritizing natural regeneration in restoration projects.

Conclusion

The study finds that defaunation-driven shifts in tree species composition significantly reduce aboveground carbon storage. Simulations suggest forests rich in animal-dispersed trees could lose up to 37.8% of biomass due to seed disperser loss. Despite this, current carbon finance mechanisms do not recognize overexploitation as a major threat to carbon sequestration. The authors argue that climate finance policies must incorporate wildlife conservation to ensure long-term forest resilience. Key actions include securing Indigenous land rights, providing financial and logistical support for local conservation initiatives, and integrating natural regeneration into restoration efforts. Without these measures, carbon finance projects risk failing to meet their climate mitigation goals.