Biodiversity

Tropical rainforests cover just 9% of earth's land but contain more than 50% of all biodiversity species (pillay et al. 2021). Much of these tropical rainforests are on Indigenous Peoples and local communities’ managed lands.

Community-designed solutions are preventing biodiversity deterioration in Madagascar, Indonesia and Brazil. Alongside communities with resilient sources of nutrition and food security, wildlife populations can recover and thrive.

  • The most effective way to prevent extinction is to protect habitat.

  • When an animal species is crammed into a small fragment of habitat, its population drops and it enters an extinction vortex.

  • Reforestation corridors reconnect fragmented forests and increase habitat for wildlife.

  • Animals with sufficient habitat can avoid inbreeding, genetic bottlenecks, disease, and extinction.

  • Thriving communities also protect against 'empty forest syndrome,' when a standing forest is devoid of birds and mammals due to over-hunting.

  • A forest can look healthy from satellite and contain plenty of carbon, but be devoid of life.

  • When communities have the resources to build resilient food systems, they can live in balance with biodiversity.

  • HIH has data behind this too.

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