Harnessing carbon payments to protect biodiversity. Science 326:1368–9

The rapid destruction of tropical forestsproduces ~20 % of anthropogenic carbonemissions and poses one of the greatest perils to global biodiversity (1). A highly antici-pated carbon-payment mechanism termed REDD (reduced emissions from deforestation and degra-dation) is increasing incentives to protect threat-ened forests (2). REDD funding could soon dwarf all other spending for tropical conservation (3). Although designed to limit harmful climate change, REDD could provide additional benefits, such as the conservation of biodiversity.Yetwithout specific provisions for biodiversity, REDD is likely to protect forests that are most cost-effective for re-ducing carbon emissions (3). Here, we critically assess how well such forests protect biodiversity. We modeled business-as-usual deforestatio