Climate change

Climate change is among the greatest threats to biodiversity today. As Earth's temperature rises, wildlife moves to more suitable habitat northward or perhaps to higher elevations. Some coral reef species cannot move, other species are not suited to new ecosystems, and some are simply running out of room to live. Meanwhile, glaciers are melting, ocean chemistry is changing, and entire populations of species are disappearing. If left unchecked, climate change could prompt the extinction of tens of thousands of species in as few as 50 years.

It is well known that human activity, especially the burning of fossil fuels, causes global warming. However, few people realize that deforestation and land-use changes – such as slash-and-burn farming, soil degradation and loss, road building, and urban sprawl – account for as much as 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Some 35.1 million acres of tropical forests are destroyed each year, releasing millions of tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. Not to mention the significant loss of biodiversity and habitat in each converted acre, or the cumulative loss of ecosystem services for local communities, including storm protection, non-timber forest products, ecotourism potential, and water purification.

Conservation International (CI) is working with partners in all sectors to better understand the impact of climate change on global biodiversity and to promote conservation as a strategy for mitigating global warming. By incorporating the science of climate change into conservation strategies, CI is demonstrating that CO2 emissions can be reduced not only by protecting and restoring forests that absorb the gas, but also by preventing release of the greenhouse gases when forests are cleared or burned.

Through its Center for Environmental Leadership in Business (CELB), CI engages industry in this effort and offers cost-effective options for businesses to offset their emissions. Conservation Carbon projects are unique in that they are designed to deliver multiple benefits: mitigating climate change, conserving biodiversity, and promoting human welfare. Thus, a donation for offsetting carbon also prevents species extinctions, restores ecosystem services for communities, and fosters economic growth.

For example, CI has partnered with the Wildlife Conservation Society and Madagascar’s Ministry of the Environment, Water, and Forests to protect one of the largest remaining patches of rain forest on the island nation and thus prevent the release of tons of CO2 there. Madagascar is home to a wide array of species found nowhere else on Earth, but poverty, rapid population growth, and a lack of agricultural alternatives have resulted in extensive deforestation on the island.

With offset donations of various companies, however, CI and its partners are supporting Malagasy communities in managing a protected area and transforming slash-and-burn farming into sustainable agriculture across some 864,900 acres of land.