Abstract

If applied appropriately Nature-based carbon projects such as conservation, restoration and expansion of habitat offer an exciting opportunity to tackle both the climate and biodiversity crises. However, co-benefits are not assured and there is a growing concern that funding through carbon credits encourages creation of fast-growing monocultures that offer short term benefits of rapid sequestration and miss opportunities to support biodiversity. Although recognised as important, a lack of robust, consistent and scalable metrics for considering biodiversity impacts of projects has largely prevented meaningful comparisons. I plan to present the framework that we have developed within 4C to quantify the impact on biodiversity of land use change and two key applications. Firstly, to assess the biodiversity impact of carbon projects and secondly to examine the value of restoration and conservation to biodiversity globally. I would like to discuss ways in which to develop this framework further e.g. by incorporating additional threats, habitat quality and integrating on the ground observations.

Bio: Alison Eyres is a post-doc in Zoology and 4C