Synopsis: The Straits Times analyses the beat of the changing environment, from biodiversity conservation to climate change.

Conserving a forest instead of cutting it down for other uses is becoming increasingly attractive to land developers, as more companies and countries eye such projects as sources of carbon credits to offset their emissions. 

But a new study by researchers at the National University of Singapore (NUS) has found that protecting forests in South-east Asia can yield many more benefits, other than just the profits from the sale of carbon credits. Communities around a healthy forest with a wide diversity of wild pollinators, for example, can benefit from higher agricultural yields.

In this episode, The Straits Times environment correspondent Audrey Tan and climate change editor David Fogarty discuss the co-benefits of such projects with Dr Tasya Vadya Sarira, a postdoctoral researcher at the NUS Centre for Nature-based Climate Solutions. 

Highlights (click/tap above):

01:38 What are the benefits of forests other than taking in planet-warming carbon dioxide?

02:50 Are these benefits unique to forest conservation projects?

03:46 A recent study mapped out where in South-east Asia, forests with benefits are located. What sparked it? Where are these forests?

06:53 How are co-benefits reflected in the carbon price currently?

08:58 Why is it important to recognise co-benefits?

Produced by: Audrey Tan ([email protected]), David Fogarty ([email protected]), Ernest Luis, Hadyu Rahim and Teo Tong Kai

Edited by: Teo Tong Kai

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