Browsing by Author "Holm, Saara"

Tropical forests, which hold significant carbon reserves mostly in the soil and trees, are under constant land-use change pressure. At the same time, there is an increasing demand for carbon sinks, as atmospheric CO2 levels keep increasing. Protecting the carbon sinks is crucial in curbing the further heating of the atmosphere. Tropical forests are also the mayor biodiversity hotspots. Conservation of biodiversity is important for keeping the flora and fauna populations viable. More species on Earth equals to more possibly adapting species in the changing climate. This Master’s thesis investigates the relation between the terrestrial carbon and biodiversity in two study areas in Peruvian regions Madre de Dios and San Martín and estimates the Biodiversity Conservation Value (BCV) for different land-use scenarios for future. The studied areas are located in the Tropical Andes and the Amazon rainforest and are therefore key biodiversity hotspots on a global scale. This thesis also discusses other environmental issues threatening the biodiversity in the studied areas. These environmental issues include illegal gold mining in Madre de Dios, impacts of selective logging, oil exploration, illegal logging, habitat fragmentation and agricultural expansion. The data was collected in 26 face-to-face interviews with biodiversity experts in Peru. The data was then entered into an Excel-based tool called CarboScen, which created estimations of the future BCV values in the studied landscapes. The land-use scenarios used in this study are based on the research of Larjavaara et. al. (2018) about the cost of increasing ecosystem carbon in different locations around the world. The main results of this thesis are that the payments for extra carbon ton stocked in the landscape would increase the BCV in the studied landscapes in Peru and be beneficial for the biodiversity. The environmental issues such as tackling illegal logging and gold mining and decreasing the use of mercury in gold extraction require changes in legislation, monitoring and transparency. Curbing the agricultural expansion requires global action in decreasing the consumption.