Exploring the Value of Protected and Conserved Areas in Conserving Biodiversity and Carbon

Student Researcher

Clara Wheelock, Major: Integrative Conservation

Faculty Mentor

Dr. Robert Rose

Project Description

The World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) has been advancing Nature-based Solutions, which includes sustainable planning, management and engineering practices that weave natural features or processes into the built environment to promote adaptation and resilience for nature and for people. With the publication of the 2020 Global Standard for Nature-Based Solutions, IUCN has become a leader in advancing Nature-based Solutions to a wide range of societal problems. While the role of protected areas in the protection of biodiversity is well recognized, this project will provide evidence for how protecting areas of high carbon density for climate change mitigation serves as a Nature-Based Climate Solution that provides benefits for biodiversity, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and the well-being of people.

A W&M student will work with mentors to to develop a mapping tool that can be used to identify, at the global scale: i) the current value of existing protected areas in protecting the most important carbon-dense ecosystems and ii) places of high carbon density and high biodiversity that are currently unprotected. It is our hope that the mapping tool could be made publicly available to protected areas policymakers and managers to inform them of the value of existing and future protected areas in Nature-based Climate Solutions.This project will strengthen the evidence for the role of protected areas in advancing Nature-based Climate Solutions to advance the role of PCAs as one approach needed to address the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. It will inform WCPA's positions at the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity and the Paris Climate Agreement.

Project ID - Format

23-014-23 - CRP Year