Yellow Fever Threatens Golden Lion Tamarins

Golden lion tamarin (Leontopithecus rosalia), Atlantic Forest of Brazil

September 10, 2019: Troubling news for golden lion tamarins.  Yellow fever threatens one of the world’s most renowned conservation successes.  

YELLOW FEVER OUTBREAK THREATENS ENDANGERED GOLDEN LION TAMARINS

The wild population of golden lion tamarins suffered a dramatic decline in the wake of the worst yellow fever outbreak in Brazil in 80 years.  According a study published today in the journal Nature.com, the wild tamarin population has declined by 32 percent since 2014.  This reduction marks the first drastic loss the species has faced in nearly 40 years.

Prior to the yellow fever epizootic, golden lion tamarin numbers had been steadily increasing—from a few hundred in the 1970s to 3,700 in recent years.  The team at Saving Nature joined the effort to save the golden lion tamarin in 2012, helping connect them to larger forest expanses capable of supporting viable populations.

A recent population census by the Associação Mico-Leão-Dourado (AMLD; golden lion tamarin association), triggered by the spread of yellow fever throughout the region, found only 2,500 survivors.  A reduction in population size of this magnitude will make it difficult for golden lion tamarins to find unrelated mates, resulting in inbreeding and local extinctions of the species.

Yellow fever was first detected near their geographic range in early 2017, and reports of sick or dead tamarins surfaced in 2018. The AMLD is currently hard at work to reduce the devastating impact of yellow fever on golden lion tamarins. Their multifaceted approach includes an ongoing population census, yellow fever risk and acquired immunity assessments, strategic translocations, and a vaccination program.

Click here to read the full publication.

Golden lion tamarin (Leontopithecus rosalia), Atlantic Forest of Brazil
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Categories: Brazil, Saving Nature Collection

The Lungs of the Planet Are Burning

Burning tropical forests is a major factor in climate change. Deforestation contributes one fifth of all the greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere due to human activity–more that all the emissions from Europe.
Burning tropical forests is a major factor in climate change. Deforestation contributes one fifth of all the greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere due to human activity–more that all the emissions from Europe.

September 3, 2019: Rewilding Earth

As the world watches the Amazon fires rage, destroying one of our most important global treasures there is only one question on everyone’s mind:

 

Can we survive this unchecked destruction?

In his recent article for Rewilding Earth, Stuart Pimm, President of Saving Nature, shares his insights into the Amazon fires and explains the potential consequences.

Days of Fire

by Stuart Pimm

Fly from the USA to Rio de Janeiro and choose a day-time flight. Reject all demands to lower your window shades. You must not miss the view. One heads southeast, crosses Cuba, and makes landfall near Caracas, Venezuela. The next two and a half hours are a planetary spectacular, while the final three are apocalyptic.

The transect from Caracas to Manaus on the Amazon shows vast, unbroken tracts of forest. I’ve done this on crisp, clear days and, on magical ones, when the tepuis rise above low-lying mist. They inspired Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World. I don’t think undiscovered dinosaurs live there, but undiscovered species? Bet on it.

At Manaus, the black waters of the Rio Negro, coming in from the north, meet the coffee-coloured ones from the Andes. From the plane, I see they refuse to mix for a long way downstream. Unbroken forest returns – but not for long. Soon, there will be huge columns of smoke rising to the height of the plane, their plumes trailing downwind for as far as we can see. All too soon, thick grey smoke will completely cover the ground below. It will continue for most of the rest of the journey.

No other journey tells me what wonderful places we still have of our planet — and how we might lose them in a generation.

Click here to read the entire article.

Girl on Train Tracks analogy for Climate Change
Categories: Climate Change, News, Saving Nature Collection

Of What Use is Biodiversity?

ChinaBirdBlin

In the August 2019 Special Edition of Duke Magazine, Dr. Stuart Pimm shares his observations from a recent visit to China.

A TOAST AT THE FRONLINE

Of What Use is Biodiversity?

August 15, 2019: Stuart Pimm

I stand on a small tributary of the Irrawaddy River. Across it is Myanmar—formerly Burma: I’m about as far west in the Chinese province of Yunnan as I can be. Borders between countries fascinate, for they illuminate different experiments in how we manage our natural world. Across the river, the land is going up in smoke. There’s a dense blue haze. At night, I see dozens of small fires, while overhead a satellite maps them from their thermal infrared radiation.

On returning to Duke, I look at what those maps show. China’s border is obvious. For a thousand miles along its southern and southwestern frontier, it has very few fires, while thousands carpet the land of its immediate neighbors.

Across the river unfolds a human tragedy, repeated across the developing world. Poor farmers burn the land each year to clear forests and brush and to enrich the poor soils with the nutrients the burning releases. On steep slopes, the inevitable heavy rains will wash away those nutrients, the soils, and often people’s homes too. The land’s fertility degrades each burning season.

Globally, burning tropical forests adds 4 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere a year, almost as much as all the emissions in the U.S. and more than those from the European Union.

 

ChinaBirdBlin
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Categories: China, News, Saving Nature Collection

Logging and Mining Threaten Unique Biodiversity

woodlarkforest

August 1, 2019

In this article published by Mongabay, Saving Nature’s Dr. Stuart Pimm was asked to share his perspective on the trade-off between logging and conservation in this remote island swathed in old growth forest.

Logging, Mining Companies Lock Eyes on a Biodiverse Island Like No Other

While many of the world’s forest have been exploited by logging, mining,, and energy production, Woodlark Island has survived relatively unscathted…that is, until now. 

Lured by high-value timber, a logging company is planning to clear 40 percent of Woodlark’s forests. Compounding the threat to this unique ecosystem is an open-pit mine approved to operate in the middle of the island. Researchers fear the resulting habitat destruction will drive many species to extinction.  

“The massive logging proposed will destroy much of the island’s forests and the essential ecosystem services they provide and jeopardise those species,” says Stuart Pimm, an expert in extinction and professor of conservation at Duke University.extinction.  

Are this island’s endemic species worth their weight in gold?   Read the full article here.

woodlarkforest
Categories: News

Stuart Pimm Awarded Cosmos Prize

Stuart Pimm and the Emporer of Japan

July 22, 2019

We are proud to announce that Stuart Pimm, Founder and President of Saving Nature, has been awarded the 2019 International Cosmos Prize in recognition of his outstanding achievements in promoting “The Harmonious Coexistence between Nature and Mankind” and for his contributions to the advancement of a global outlook and long-term vision for Earth’s future.

 

The prize, widely viewed as one of the most prestigious honors presented in the environmental field, recognizes the culmination of Dr. Pimm’s leadership in preventing the loss of biodiversity.  Past recipients of the Cosmos Prize include Jane Goodall, E.O. Wilson, Richard Dawkins, and Sir David Attenborough, among other luminaries in the fields of conservation science and natural history.

 

In selecting Pimm as this year’s laureate, the prize jury cited not only his research and scholarship but also his leadership of Saving Nature and the impact the organization has had, particularly in protecting and restoring habitat for threatened biodiversity in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, India, and Sumatra.

 

The jury also cited Pimm’s commitment to fostering future environmental leaders by mentoring students at all levels – doctoral, master’s, undergraduate and even high school — and giving them hands-on experience in the lab and field as members of his research team.

 

A prolific and widely cited scientist, Pimm has published more than 330 peer-reviewed research studies, including seminal works on biodiversity and species loss in the Everglades, the coastal forests of Brazil, and the northern Andes, the latter two of which are among the planet’s hotspots for threatened species.

 

His work has helped shed light on the threats facing hundreds of endangered species, from iconic ones such as giant pandas, African elephants, and lions, to humble creatures like the Cape Sable seaside sparrow, a sentinel species of environmental health in Florida’s Everglades.

 

In addition to his scientific papers, he has published four books intended for mainstream audiences, including a widely praised assessment of human impacts on the planet, The World According to Pimm: A Scientist Audits the Earth, in 2001.

 

Pimm also has testified before both the U.S. House and Senate on the reauthorization of the Endangered Species Act.

Stuart Pimm, Founder and President of Saving Nature

It’s no exaggeration to say that much of what we know today about endangered species and what can be done to reverse their declines is directly attributable to Stuart.

 

Over the course of his remarkably productive career so far, he’s developed quantifiable methods for estimating extinction rates and identifying global patterns of species and habitat loss.

 

He’s championed the use of big data, geospatial analysis, remote sensing and other tools that have revolutionized how we do conservation and measure its impacts.

 

And he’s pioneered a more strategic approach for investing limited conservation resources and partnering with local communities.

 

This is a richly deserved honor.

Toddi Steelman, Stanback Dean of the Nicholas School  

Stuart Pimm and the Emporer of Japan
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Categories: News, Saving Nature Collection

Why Saving Small Spaces Matters

Malayan banded pitta (Hydrornis irena

July 15, 2019

Humans have disproportionately harmed those places where small-ranged species are concentrated.

Malayan banded pitta (Hydrornis irena

Why Saving Small Spaces Matters

In a recent article published in American Scientist, Drs. Stuart Pimm and Clinton Jenkins of Saving Nature make the case for why saving biodiversity means thinking small….as in spaces.  

They take a deep dive into setting conservation priorities by analyzing how range size affects the risks of extinction and conclude that species with small ranges are at the greatest risk of extinction.  For these species, an area smaller than 1,000 square kilometers is their entire world.   When it’s gone, they are too.

Setting aside habitat for species with small ranges is a practical approach to protecting biodiversity in the face unrelenting population growth.  Saving Nature applies these principles to set conservation priorities, saving the greatest number of species at risk of extinction with a very cost-effective approach. 

We look for opportunities to restore and protect corridors that link habitat remnants to create viable ecosystems for vulnerable and endangered species. 

For over a decade, the team at SAVING NATURE has worked with local partners to create wildlife corridors in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, India, and the Indonesian island of Sumatra.  All areas high in biodiversity and endemism.  All areas that have lost a great deal of their once expansive forests.  

Read More about the science behind SAVING NATURE and why saving small spaces has a big impact.

Help Save A World

Help us save small spaces for endemic species suffering habitat loss.

Categories: News, Saving Nature Collection, Science

Helping Species Adapt to Climate Change

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Help species trying to escape climate change. Help Saving Nature plant trees to offset your carbon footprint and give species an escape route.
Help species trying to escape climate change. Help Saving Nature plant trees to offset your carbon footprint and give species an escape route.

July 19, 2019

In the face of climate change, species are fleeing to the poles and to higher elevations.  Saving Nature is trying to help them get there.

HELPING SPECIES ADAPT TO CLIMATE CHANGE

Every year, the world’s increasing population adds approximately 37 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from industry, agriculture, forestry, utilities, and transportation. 

Deforestation — of which the burning of tropical forests is the major component — contributes about 10% of these emissions. It is also the principal driver of biodiversity loss.

Our unrelenting carbon dioxide emissions have surpassed the planet’s ability to absorb these greenhouse gases, leading to climate disruption and species extinctions.

Species Moving to Higher Elevations as the Climate Warms

While governments struggle with finding solutions for climate change, species must seek higher ground with habitable temperatures for their survival.

Even under the most optimistic scenarios, we aren’t going to reduce the high levels of carbon dioxide anytime soon. Species do not have the option of waiting. They are moving towards the poles and, in the tropics, to higher elevations. That is, when they can.

Some species may not reach the refuge of higher elevations and will go extinct. The cycle of deforestation and climate change blocks their passage through degraded wastelands. As a result, they become trapped them in an uninhabitable landscape, dooming them to extinction.

Evidence from a 40-year Study: 1978 vs. 2018

Ph.D. student, German Forero-Medina, under the direction of Dr. Pimm, examined the distribution of birds along an elevation gradient in the mountains of Peru. Forty years earlier, Dr. Pimm’s Duke colleague, John Terborgh, had surveyed this same mountain chain at various elevations.

 

Returning to the original sites and using the same methods, the team compared where the birds are now versus in the past. Simply, they are at higher elevations — though not as high as one expects.

 

This suggests that the already threatened birds in the isolated patches of forest are in deep trouble. Isolation is bad enough, the inability to move to higher elevations is even worse news.

Saving Nature Builds Corridors to Safe Harbors

Our approach is a simple, effective, and scalable solution to reducing carbon dioxide and preventing extinctions. Restoring degraded land and reconnecting isolated forests achieves two objectives – it absorbs atmospheric carbon emissions and helps species adapt to climate change by finding safe harbor.

 

Simply put, the corridors we create in biodiversity hotspots connect forest fragments and liberate species trapped and isolated in increasingly inhospitable habitats. By reconnecting isolated forests, we create vital migration routes for species seeking higher ground.

 

In doing so, we get massive leverage by financing local partners to buy relatively small amounts of land to create significant protected refuges and strategic connections. Merging isolated forest fragments is critical to facilitating colonization of previously inaccessible areas. Doing so diversifies genetics and builds resiliency. In this era of climate change, the forest corridors also serve as the routes to survival as the climate warms.

Girl on Train Tracks analogy for Climate Change

How Can You help?

We will continue to use both science and savvy to connect, protect, and restore forest corridors. We invite you to join us in this ambitious effort!

Donating to Saving Nature puts trees in the ground for biodiversity, and sequesters carbon from the atmosphere. In short, supporting Saving Nature helps fight the two most pressing environmental problems the world faces—mass species extinction and global warming—at the same time!

Categories: Birds, Carbon Offsets, Climate Change, Research, Saving Nature Collection, Science

Let’s Talk Carbon!

Offest Your Carbon Footprint by Planting Trees

July 5, 2019

Stuart Pimm

HOW TO BECOME CARBON NEUTRAL

Let’s talk carbon. Saving Nature offsets carbon emissions surprisingly cheaply and, in doing so, helps species adapt to climate change.

This can be a complicated subject. Let’s simplify it.

We ask each supporter for $100 per year. That will make the average US citizen “carbon neutral” — the native trees we plant to restore forests with that money will soak up as much carbon dioxide from the atmosphere that he or she puts into it each year.

Carbon Dioxide Causes Global Warming

Our various human activities put about 37 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year. That’s from burning coal and gasoline, of course, but also by burning forests.

Girl on Train Tracks analogy for Climate Change

We measure increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere with great precision and have done so for decades. As the concentration increases, it traps more of the sun’s energy and so the planet warms. That massively disrupts the climate, harming people and biodiversity alike.

How to Become Carbon Neutral

Taking action to erase your carbon footprint is as simple as answering three questions.  

1. How much carbon dioxide am I putting into the atmosphere each year?

If you are average and live in the USA, the answer is 16 tons.

2. How much carbon does a forest soak up?

 

Growing trees take carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. So how many trees do you need to plant so that you are “carbon neutral?” That is, how many trees with your name on them are needed to soak up — technically, the word is sequester — as much carbon dioxide as your lifestyle produces. 

 

The answer is that the corridors we reforest at Saving Nature soak up about that same amount per hectare per year. Those corridors continue to do that for twenty years or more and at a slower rate thereafter. The bottom line is: help us plant and protect a hectare of forest and you’ll be carbon neutral for decades.

3. And finally, how much does it cost to be carbon neutral?

Tropical forests soak up about 26 tons of carbon dioxide per hectare per year as they grow back. They do so for 20 years — and usually considerably longer. Close enough, buying and reforesting a hectare of tropical forest will offset almost all a typical American’s carbon dioxide emissions for 20 years.

 

So how much does a hectare cost? Well, that depends on where we help our partners buy land and whether they plant the trees. Apart from some very difficult restorations, for which we solicit support from foundations, our costs are about $4 a ton per carbon dioxide. So about $100 per year will offset a typical American’s carbon emissions. (Other nations have different and usually lower ones.)

4. How to help combat global warming and save species?

We will continue to use both science and savvy to connect, protect, and restore forest corridors. We invite you to join us in this ambitious effort! Donating to Saving Nature puts trees in the ground for biodiversity, and sequesters carbon from the atmosphere.

Help Fight Climate Change

Please support Saving Nature in fighting global warming — at the same time you’ll be fighting mass species extinctions!

Categories: Carbon Offsets, Climate Change, Saving Nature Collection

Frequently Asked Questions About Carbon Offsets

Offest Your Carbon Footprint by Planting Trees

July 10, 2019

Frequently Asked
Questions About
Carbon Offsets

Welcome to our Frequently Asked Questions page about using a carbon footprint calculator and carbon offsets! 

Here, we aim to address common queries regarding carbon offsetting, a crucial tool in combating climate change. Whether you’re new to the concept or looking to deepen your understanding, this guide is designed to provide clarity on how carbon offsets work, their impact, and how they can be utilized to reduce your carbon footprint. If you’ve used a carbon footprint calculator and are wondering how to offset your carbon footprint, you’ve come to the right place. Read on to explore answers to the most pressing questions surrounding carbon offsets.

1. What are carbon offsets?

We all produce carbon as a result of using fossil fuels directly, or indirectly when we use products that were produced using fossil fuels. For example, we directly produce carbon when we drive a car or take a flight. When you eat food that has been produced with artificial fertilizers and pesticides (which are made from oil) you are indirectly producing carbon. The amount of carbon you produce is your “carbon footprint.” On average, each US consumer produces about 26 tons of carbon dioxide per year. (That’s 7 tons of carbon.)

Carbon offsets are a way to compensate for carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by funding projects that reduce or remove greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere. An offset works by engaging in an activity that does the opposite. Instead of producing carbon, you do something to absorb carbon.

Luckily, plants are very good at this. Whenever you plant something, the plant will be absorbing carbon that would otherwise remain in the atmosphere and contribute to global warming.

Professor Pimm, Saving Nature’s Founder and President, likes to lead an exemplary, energy efficient life, except he flies a hundred thousand miles a year or more. So, using our carbon calculator for flight emissions, he determines how many tree to plant to offset his carbon emissions from flying.  For example, a return flight to Rio de Janeiro puts about 1 ton of carbon dioxide into the air, per person. That’s about $4 worth — much less than a week’s supply of the coffee he drinks. (Biodiversity friendly, fair trade, organic, of course.)

Louie Psihoyos, Oscar-winning director, asked Pimm to be in his documentary Racing Extinction. Pimm’s condition was that there would be a donation to offset the film’s carbon emissions. Psihoyos and his team made a very detailed calculation. It came to close to what Pimm had suggested on the simple basis of how many people worked for how many months and how many flights they took. After all that, Psihoyos felt that the donation was so small, he gave several times the calculated amount, for which we were very grateful. If you wait until the very end of the documentary, you will see it paid for trees planted at Jama Coaque, Ecuador.

2. How do carbon offsets help reduce emissions?

By investing in carbon offset projects, individuals and organizations can effectively counterbalance their own carbon emissions. For example, if you take a flight and calculate your carbon footprint using a carbon footprint calculator, you can then purchase carbon offsets to “offset” the emissions from your flight.

3. How do I offset my carbon footprint?

To offset your carbon footprint, you can calculate the emissions from your activities using a carbon footprint calculator and then purchase carbon offsets from reputable providers. These offsets fund projects that reduce or remove an equivalent amount of CO2 from the atmosphere.

4. Should I use a carbon footprint calculator to work out my annual carbon emissions?

Carbon calculators are a great way to estimate your annual carbon emissions. Our carbon footprint calculator is based on the EPA estimates for carbon emissions. We also help determine how many trees to plant to offset your carbon footprint with a donation to Saving Nature.

Check our our carbon footprint calculator.

5. How does donating to Saving Nature offset my carbon footprint?

At Saving Nature, we’re keen to slow the extinction rate and, in the process, we plant a lot of trees that offset carbon emissions. When you donate to Saving Nature, we channel funds to turn degraded cattle pastures into forests. As the forests regrow on the land we help acquire, they sequester about 26 tons of carbon dioxide (7 tons of carbon) per hectare per year. This sequestration rate continues for about 20 years, then continues, but at a slower rate. 

Therefore, over 20 years,we estimate that each hectare we acquire sequesters at least 540 tons of carbon dioxide (140 tons of carbon). We make deals to purchase and restore land at under $2,000 per hectare, so we are recovering carbon dioxide from the atmosphere at about $4 per ton. (Most of our deals are much cheaper than that. For the ones that are more expensive, we seek help from foundations).

6. Is Saving Nature’s carbon certified?

This is the question we get most from companies. There are certified carbon offsets and that allows them to be traded. Now, certification is a good idea. It creates a product that companies can trade because everyone trusts those who do the certification. We are working to certify our carbon credits in Colombia.

7. What are the scientific facts about global warming?

First, the emissions. Global carbon emissions are about 10 billion tons of carbon per year. That goes into the atmosphere as 37 billion tons of carbon dioxide — a greenhouse gas. That’s about 1.5 tons of carbon (5.5 tons of carbon dioxide), per person per year, but rich countries emit far more than poor ones. 

Deforestation — of which the burning of tropical forests is the major component —contributes about 10% of those emissions. Some tropical countries have much higher carbon emissions than one might expect from their industrial activities.  

8. How much carbon is there in forests and how much do forests sequester when we replant them?

A recent study by Saatchi et al. maps current estimates of how much biomass there is in forests.The units on the map are in megagrams, which is a ton — and the measure is of biomass.  About half of biomass is carbon.  In most of the places where Saving Nature restores forests, there’s a minimum of 300 tons of biomass or 150 tons of carbon per hectare.

Graph

These are the areas shown in orange or red. (One Saving Nature site is in dry forest and the amount is less.)  A variety of other papers show averages above 200 tons of carbon per hectare, especially in the wettest forests.  As luck would have it, there is a detailed study done, in part, at one of the key Saving Nature sites: La Mesenia in Colombia. (Not luck, really: when one protects forests, one provides a place for scientists to work!) Gilroy et al. show that the primary forest there had 200 tons of carbon per hectare.

This study also shows something else. The forests go from about 10 tons of carbon per hectare as pastures to about 100 tons in about twenty years — so an average of about 4.5 tons per year, but higher in the first decade than the second.  It’s much harder to study the change in forest biomass than just the biomass — one needs several measurements, of course. 

A recent paper by Poorter et. al.1 is a massive compilation of the available estimates, by dozens of people who work in this field. They presented many graphs comparable to the one by Gilroy et al. and concluded that over twenty years, recovering forests sequestered an average of 3 tons of carbon per year. Wetter sites accumulated carbon faster than dry ones. Their results predict that the places where Saving Nature has its projects would accumulate 150 to 200 tons of biomass (so 75 to 100 tons of carbon) in 20 years, so at just under 4 to about 5 tons of carbon per year  Interestingly, they showed a median time of 66 years to reach 90% of the carbon in old forests — a result broadly comparable with the graph above.

So, our land purchases are indeed the gift that keeps giving and giving. In our calculations, we’ve used a higher annual rate of carbon sequestration, but a much shorter period over which the carbon accumulates. 

9. Can you explain carbon math?

Well, yes, if you insist. The bad news is that different publications use different units.  We use metric tons of carbon. Some publications talk about carbon, some about carbon dioxide, and some don’t tell you which. A ton of carbon becomes 3.67 tons of carbon dioxide when you burn it. (That’s because the molecular weight of carbon is 12 and carbon dioxide is 44: 44/12 = 3.67.)  And some studies use biomass. About half the biomass of wood is carbon.

We use hectares, 100 metres by 100 metres, and 1 hectare is roughly 2.5 acres. There are 100 hectares to a square kilometre. Some publications use hectares, some square kilometres, but worst of all,  the Food and Agriculture organisation uses 1,000 hectares — or 10 square kilometres.

As if this wasn’t bad enough! Some studies use tons, while others use megagrams. A megagram is, well, a ton. And after all that you will be relieved to know that one Imperial ton is almost the same as a metric done (1 ton = 1.02 metric tons). We’re using metric tons.  The worst news of all is that many studies don’t say what they are using! (It can take an age to find out what they actually mean.)

10. How can I teach the carbon cycle to high school students?

Teaching children about the carbon cycle doesn’t have to be confusing. Once they understand the relationship between trees and climate change, they can be climate change ambassadors to friends and family.

Contact Professor Pimm for details of his presentation to High Schools on how to estimate how much carbon there is in a forest. 

11. What can I do to fight climate change?

Calculating and offsetting your carbon footprint by planting trees to restore rainforests is a great way to take personal responsibility climate change. The next step is knowing how many trees to plant to offset your carbon footprint. Our carbon footprint calculator will help you do both. 

Donating to Saving Nature to plant trees to offset carbon dioxide and rescue biodiversity solves the two most pressing environmental problems the world faces—mass species extinction and deforestation—at the same time!  We will continue to use both science and savvy to connect, protect, and restore forest corridors. We invite you to join us in this ambitious effort! 

Please support forest restoration and connectivity, and share our hope for the future of species struggling for survival in the face of global warming!

Footnotes

1. Poorter L, Bongers F, Aide TM, Zambrano AM, Balvanera P, Becknell JM, Boukili V, Brancalion PH, Broadbent EN, Chazdon RL, Craven D. Biomass resilience of Neotropical secondary forests. Nature. 2016 530:211 2.

FIGURE 1: Map of carbon in tropical forests: from Saatchi SS, Harris NL, Brown S, Lefsky M, Mitchard ET, Salas W, Zutta BR, Buermann W, Lewis SL, Hagen S, Petrova S. Benchmark map of forest carbon stocks in tropical regions across three continents. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2011 Jun 14;108(24):9899-904. 3.

FIGURE 2: Accumulation of carbon in regenerating tropical forests. From Gilroy JJ, Woodcock P, Edwards FA, Wheeler C, Baptiste BL, Uribe CA, Haugaasen T, Edwards DP. Cheap carbon and biodiversity cobenefits from forest regeneration in a hotspot of endemism. Nature Climate Change. 2014 Jun;4(6):503.

Categories: Carbon Offsets, Climate Change, Saving Nature Collection

Making Habitats Whole Again

Stuart Pimm, Founder and President of Saving Nature

January 14, 2019:  Stuart Pimm sat down with Ella Barnett to reflect on the Tyler Prize and its role in his conservation vision for SavingSpecies. 

 

He has since launched Saving Nature in July 2019 as the successor to SavingSpecies.  His new organization reflects his now broader vision for working toward a sustainable future to solidify and amplify the gains achieved.  Saving Nature has recruited an expanded team of leading conservation professionals  to help shape the strategic direction for saving vanishing ecosystems, preventing extinctions, and improving the lives of communities most impacted by environmental degradation.

 

Dr. Stuart Pimm, the Doris Duke Chair of Conservation Ecology at the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University, is a founding father of modern conservation. A trained biologist and theoretical ecologist, he has used his multidisciplinary background in the application of understanding biological conservation. It is because of him that science was implemented into conservation and species population, and extinction rates started to be tracked. In 2010, Pimm was awarded the Tyler Prize for his extraordinary contribution to the environment. Now, eight years on, the Tyler Prize sat down with him to find out what Pimm has been working on since. Unsurprisingly, his unfailing dedication towards the environment in general – and conservation in particular – has crafted a path towards a rapidly expanding non-profit organisation that aims to restore international species populations while working at a local level.

 

How did the Tyler Prize help you to contribute to the environment?

I was incredibly fortunate to get the Tyler Prize, and I felt that one of the things that I could do with that money was to use it to create an organization, SavingSpecies. It’s an organization to try and look at what are the key places around the world that we need to protect if we’re going to save biological diversity, biodiversity. The money I received from the Tyler Prize has certainly helped me push that agenda.

 

What does SavingSpecies do?

SavingSpecies, identifies the critical parts of the world where species are going extinct, through finding local partners. We want to empower local conservation groups, and we help them raise money to do restoration of habitats, typically forest restoration.

 

We solicit proposals from people in developing countries that want to manage their land by reconnecting these fragmented landscapes. We get proposals from people, and then we try to raise the money from donors, and convince them that it’s a really cost effective way of preventing species extinction.

 

We work with local partners to acquire unproductive land, get rid of the cattle, and replant those areas in native trees, establishing habitat connections. In doing that, we also are able to provide a source of income for local communities.

 

How does SavingSpecies generate impact?

What we do is reconnect forests by building what we call habitat corridors.

 

We have a mapping site, which maps out the key places in the world where species are at risk, and then we know from lots of detailed scientific studies the consequences of fragmented habitats. We’ve done a huge amount of research that shows that small, isolated fragments of habitat lose species and so we’re in the business of re-connecting landscapes to make them viable for species.

 

We also want to empower local conservation groups by helping them raise money to restore habitats. I wanted to build an organization that would help them, that would reward them, that would give them the resources and the scientific capability that they need. Moreover, you can see our results from space. You can go to Google Earth, and you can see the landscapes that we have reconnected with our tree planting.

 

Where are SavingSpecies’ projects?

We currently have ten projects in six countries. We have projects in the Andes. There’s Colombia and Ecuador, in the Coastal Forest of Brazil, and in places like Sumatra…

 

The site we work in Sumatra is the only place that has elephants, rhinos, tigers and orangutans in the same place. It’s a big patch of forest, but there’s a deep gash into that forest where agriculture has spread along the valley. But elephants and other species want to cross from one patch of forest to another which causes a lot of damage to local people. So we’re creating a forest corridor so that the elephants and other species can move between those patches safely and not bother people; they have freedom to roam.

 

What do you believe is the best practice for conservation?

Conservation is always local.

 

The people who live in these areas have lived there for generations. Their lives are there. What we can do is to work with them in a respectful way and see if we can help them make different choices for their lives.

 

Having local partners solves a lot of problems because they understand the local issues. There’s no way I could go into those places and tell those people what to do. What I can do is help local groups. I can empower local groups so they can solve the problems.

 

Solving problems is not always easy, but they are idiosyncratic. A problem one part of the world has will be dffierent to a problem in another. It’s always local, and you’ve got to work with people who understand the local politics.

 

When I look at local, small local conservation groups around the world, I’m hugely impressed by them. These are not famous organizations. These are small, local groups of people. They’re often very passionate about the places where they live and the places that they care about.

 

What is the scientific process that you follow?

We’re working on scientific papers now to try and identify exactly where the places in the world are that have not been protected properly, places that are the priorities for establishing national parks and other protected areas. Now that work will take me a year or a couple of years to finish with my team. We’ll then publish a paper. That will probably take another year, and it might be several years beyond that before we can make practical actions from that.

 

When you finally get to that act of planting a tree, it’s enormously rewarding.

It’s that continuum from really rather esoteric, sometimes rather theoretical science, through to the empirical science, through to the practical applications of that science, right down to planting a tree. Some of the things that I’m doing now are consequences of science that I did a decade ago.

 

We are very energetic at using our science to make a difference.

 

Do you ever plant the trees yourself?

Oh, you bet. I think that’s the part I like the most.

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