• HOME
  • NEWS
    • BIOENGINEERING
    • SCIENCE NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • FORUM
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
Tuesday, May 24, 2022
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • BIOENGINEERING
    • SCIENCE NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • FORUM
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • BIOENGINEERING
    • SCIENCE NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • FORUM
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Biology

Nearly 20 percent of intact forest landscapes overlap with extractive industries

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
July 16, 2021
in Biology
1
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

Intact Forest Landscapes are critical for conserving biodiversity and fighting climate change

IMAGE

Credit: Julie Larson Maher/WCS

Byron Bay (16/7/2021) – A new study from WCS and WWF reveals that nearly 20 percent of tropical Intact Forest Landscapes (IFLs) overlap with concessions for extractive industries such as mining, oil and gas. The total area of overlap is 376,449 square miles (975,000 square kilometers), about the size of Egypt. Mining concessions overlap most with tropical IFLs, at 11.33 percent of the total area, while oil and gas concessions overlap with 7.85 percent of the total area.

IFLs are globally important for conserving biodiversity and fighting climate change. These landscapes represent some of the last places on Earth that still contain species assemblages at near-natural levels of abundance. According to 2013 estimates, 549 million acres of intact tropical forests remain. Only 20 percent of tropical forests can be considered “intact,” but those areas store some 40 percent of the above-ground carbon found in all tropical forests. At least 35 percent of intact forests are home to, and protected by, politically and economically marginalized Indigenous Peoples.

Despite intact forests’ extraordinary value for biodiversity and humanity, they are declining at an alarming rate, with over 7 percent of their total area lost between 2000 and 2013. While the growth of extractive industries is recognized as a threat to IFLs, the extent of this threat has not been well understood prior to this study.

The authors calculated the spatial overlap of extractive concessions – specifically, mining, and oil and gas – with IFL datasets in three tropical regions: South America, Asia-Pacific, and Central Africa. Of these regions, Central Africa’s IFLs had the highest overlap with extractive concessions (26 percent). In addition, they identified the specific stages of extractive projects overlapping with IFLs, and found that most leases are in the exploration stage.

Said Dr. Hedley Grantham, lead author of the study. “Many of these extractive projects are still in the early stages. While this could imply a significant future threat to IFLs, it also means there is an opportunity to mitigate potential impacts before they occur.”

The authors recommend that companies incorporate avoidance planning in the design phase of extractive projects, taking into account the most important intact forest areas. Ideally, coordination with governments will allow for landscape-scale planning. The authors encourage governments not to allocate extractives concessions within IFLs where possible. With the appropriate planning, future impacts to these crucial ecosystems can be avoided.

The study is published in Frontiers in Forests and Global Change.

WCS is a member of Forests for Life (FFL), a partnership with Re:wild, United Nations Development Programme, World Resources Institute and Rainforest Foundation Norway. Working with national governments, Indigenous Peoples, local communities and others, FFL has two aims – to place ecological integrity at the heart of managing and conserving the world’s forests and to halt and reverse declines in integrity across 1 billion hectares of the most intact forests worldwide.

WCS is a proud partner of Trillion Trees, a joint venture between BirdLife International, WCS, and WWF to urgently speed up and scale up the positive power of forests, helping the world protect and restore one trillion trees by 2050.

###

WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society)

MISSION: WCS saves wildlife and wild places worldwide through science, conservation action, education, and inspiring people to value nature. To achieve our mission, WCS, based at the Bronx Zoo, harnesses the power of its Global Conservation Program in nearly 60 nations and in all the world’s oceans and its five wildlife parks in New York City, visited by 4 million people annually. WCS combines its expertise in the field, zoos, and aquarium to achieve its conservation mission. Visit: newsroom.wcs.org Follow: @WCSNewsroom. For more information: 347-840-1242.

Media Contact
Stephen Sautner
[email protected]

Related Journal Article

http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/ffgc.2021.692338

Tags: BiodiversityBiologyClimate ChangeEcology/Environment
Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

Wax worm saliva contains enzymes capable of breaking down plastics

Wax worm saliva contains enzymes capable of breaking down plastics

May 24, 2022
Wa Xian and Frank McKeon in the Department of Biology and Biochemistry and Stem Cell Center at University of Houston

Stem cell cloning experts unraveling cystic fibrosis

May 24, 2022

Blood biomarker predicts complicated Crohn’s disease years before diagnosis: Study

May 24, 2022

World-first discovery of cornea T cells protecting eyes from viral infections

May 24, 2022
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • Weybourne Atmospheric Observatory

    Breakthrough in estimating fossil fuel CO2 emissions

    46 shares
    Share 18 Tweet 12
  • Hidden benefit: Facemasks may reduce severity of COVID-19 and pressure on health systems, researchers find

    44 shares
    Share 18 Tweet 11
  • Sweet discovery could drive down inflammation, cancers and viruses

    43 shares
    Share 17 Tweet 11
  • Discovery of the one-way superconductor, thought to be impossible

    43 shares
    Share 17 Tweet 11

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Tags

VaccinesUniversity of WashingtonVirologyWeather/StormsWeaponryUrogenital SystemVehiclesViolence/CriminalsUrbanizationVaccineZoology/Veterinary ScienceVirus

Recent Posts

  • Listening can be exhausting for older cochlear implant users #ASA182
  • Breakthrough in quantum universal gate sets: A high-fidelity iToffoli gate
  • The BrightFocus Foundation grants an Alzheimer’s Disease Research Standard Award to a CNIC project
  • Wax worm saliva contains enzymes capable of breaking down plastics
  • Contact Us

© 2019 Bioengineer.org - Biotechnology news by Science Magazine - Scienmag.

No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

© 2019 Bioengineer.org - Biotechnology news by Science Magazine - Scienmag.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
Posting....