A new report prepared under the auspices of the Convention on Biological Diversity examines the relationship of biodiversity, forest resilience, and climate change. Stated simply, maintenance of biodiversity is important to forest resilience in most forest types. Resilience, in turn, provides a metric for understanding the likely permanence of carbon sequestration and storage in forests.
This is an issue area that I think warrants increased attention as we move toward Copenhagen and beyond. The high likelihood of some type of Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) mechanism requires careful assessment of forest practices in relationship to climate change policy. As I have argued, the post-Kyoto regime would benefit from a form of REDD that recognizes biodiversity preservation and primary forest adaptation as fundamental goals in conjunction with mitigation benefit. The report linked above provides strong scientific evidence in support of this view.
Related posts: