Refining carbon credits to contribute to large carnivore conservation: The jaguar as a case study

Refining carbon credits to contribute to large carnivore conservation: The jaguar as a case study

Carbon credits through Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) offer a unique opportunity to positively impact habitat and biodiversity conservation. Few financial tools are available to jaguar conservationists to conserve forest habitats; thus carbon credits are of great inter...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Conservation letters Vol. 15; no. 3
Main Authors: Hyde, Matthew, Boron, Valeria, Rincón, Samantha, Viana, Diego Francis Passos, Larcher, Letícia, Reginato, Gustavo A., Payán, Esteban
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Washington John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01-05-2022
Wiley
Subjects:
Biodiversity
Cameras
Carbon
carbon credits
Carbon offsets
co‐benefits
Deforestation
Emission standards
Emissions
Emissions control
Emissions trading
Forest biomass
Forest conservation
Forest management
Forests
Habitats
Initiatives
Inventory
Keystone species
Landowners
large carnivores
Latin America
Local communities
Monitoring
Panthera onca
Populations
REDD
Wildlife
Wildlife conservation
Wildlife habitats
Brazil
Colombia
Belize
Paraguay
Peru
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Summary:Carbon credits through Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) offer a unique opportunity to positively impact habitat and biodiversity conservation. Few financial tools are available to jaguar conservationists to conserve forest habitats; thus carbon credits are of great interest. In order to examine the opportunities and challenges of integrating conservation impact for jaguars and biodiversity into carbon credits, we review 44 REDD+ projects in Latin America certified by Verified Carbon Standard + Climate, Community and Biodiversity located within jaguar distribution, registered between 2011 and 2020. Of the 44, only eleven of those projects have jaguars as conservation targets, and seven of those eleven have a coherent plan for monitoring jaguar populations. While REDD+ projects promote forest cover and biomass conservation, tradeoffs based on limited financial resources at the onset and throughout the project may lead to limited monitoring capabilities and threat reduction, thus rendering co‐benefit reporting deficient or absent. We suggest more rigorous baseline data requirements of fauna populations, greater collaboration between project developers, researchers and local communities to monitor wildlife and address human‐jaguar conflicts, and clear requirements from national level REDD+ initiatives to ensure the conservation of a forest keystone species, the Americas’ largest felid.
ISSN:1755-263X
1755-263X
DOI:10.1111/conl.12880