Not Seeing the Forest for the Trees: The Oversight of Defaunation in REDD+ and Global Forest Governance

Background

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) is a global initiative aimed at mitigating climate change by preserving forest carbon stocks. While REDD+ has focused primarily on reducing deforestation, it largely ignores the role of defaunation—the loss of forest wildlife due to unsustainable hunting. Many tropical forests are increasingly experiencing "empty forest syndrome," where large frugivores and seed dispersers are being hunted out, leading to disruptions in seed dispersal and carbon sequestration. This study highlights how REDD+ policies fail to address the ecological role of forest fauna and argues that overlooking defaunation could compromise the long-term effectiveness of forest conservation efforts.

Goals and Methods

The study conducted a desktop review of REDD+ policies and national implementation efforts in Colombia, Ecuador, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Indonesia, assessing whether hunting and defaunation were recognized as threats to forest function. Researchers analyzed sub-national REDD+ project documents to see if they incorporated wildlife conservation, hunting management, or biodiversity monitoring into their frameworks. The study also examined how defaunation affects forest regeneration, tree species composition, and carbon storage.

Conclusion

The findings reveal that defaunation is almost entirely ignored in both international and national REDD+ strategies. While biodiversity is mentioned as a co-benefit, the specific role of wildlife in maintaining forest ecosystems is not explicitly addressed. Hunting is rarely considered a driver of forest degradation, despite clear evidence that the loss of large frugivores and seed dispersers alters tree recruitment and reduces carbon storage capacity. Even at the sub-national level, where REDD+ projects are implemented, references to hunting were largely superficial, with few concrete measures to monitor or mitigate its effects. The study argues that without integrating defaunation into REDD+, forest conservation efforts risk failing in the long term.