Protecting forests delivers enormous global economic and climate benefits, but new research shows these benefits can be unequal—with international stakeholders gaining most, and local communities bearing substantial costs.
That’s the takeaway of a new study on the costs and benefits of conserving forests, focusing on Tanzania’s Eastern Arc Mountains, a global biodiversity hotspot estimated to provide nature-based benefits to the world equivalent to $8.2 billion.
The researchers call for $2 billion in international funding for Tanzanian farmers living near the forests, who would unequally bear the costs of conservation—to offset lost potential income from clearing trees to expand farming.
“Tropical forests are essential global infrastructure for our climate goals and biodiversity, and richer countries have a responsibility to step up and enable their conservation in an equitable way,” said University of Vermont (̽̽) researcher Brendan Fisher, a co-author of the study.
Published in the journal , the study is the largest and most detailed study of its kind ever undertaken in the tropics.
“International gains from the conservation of this biodiversity hotspot far outweigh the gains to local communities directly involved in their conservation,” said the University of Cambridge’s Andrew Balmford, a global affiliate of ̽̽’s Gund Institute for Environment.
“Local rural communities are not incentivized to protect globally important natural habitats. Understandably, their need to make a basic living—which often involves clearing forests and woodlands for agriculture, timber, and charcoal—has to come first.”
Protecting forests is a climate win
Climate regulation is the primary global benefit from protecting large areas of tropical forest. Intact tropical forests act as ‘carbon sinks,’ removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and helping to regulate the global climate. Conversion of these natural habitats to agricultural land results in vast carbon emissions.
Although the people living near these forests feel some of this benefit, they also bear substantial conservation costs. This could be offset by investments that boost the current farm productivity and other incentives.
“Investments that help farmers boost yields on their land would potentially provide a long-term solution to the pressure on natural habitats, without compromising local food production or livelihoods,” said study co-author Pantaleo Munishi of Tanzania’s Sokoine University of Agriculture.
The study, which included over 10 years of fieldwork, also found that the greatest overall global economic gains come from the most biologically important sites—but these are also most costly for locals to conserve. This means that without financial support, the incentives to clear natural habitats are highest in the most biologically important places.
“The huge demand for cropland in Tanzania, not just from smallholders, leads to clearing forests and woodlands—many of which aren’t formally protected. Smallholders are pushed further into the mountains because they need to make a living,” said Marije Schaafsma of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, one of the study’s lead authors.
Unique species at risk
The Eastern Arc is home to almost 500 species of plants not known to exist anywhere else in the world and many unusual animals, including a tree-dwelling crab and a monkey previously unknown to Western science called the kipunji. Tanzania’s Eastern Arc Mountains are considered a global priority for conservation, and following extensive forest clearance, local and national governments have established a network of protected areas to help conserve the remaining biodiversity and sustain ecosystem services.
The research was funded by the Leverhulme Trust and the Royal Society. It was led by an international team of researchers, including three members of ̽̽’s Gund Institute for Environment—Andrew Balmford, a Gund Global Affiliate, and Brendan Fisher and Taylor Ricketts, Gund Fellows from the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources.
This story was adapted from a press release by the University of Cambridge.
