Will Tiger conservation and its climate Co-benefits go hand in hand in India?

By Vivek Saini 

The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA)’s declaration of new tiger reserves and subsequent protection of them had the additional benefit of preventing the emission of more than one million tonne of CO2 into the atmosphere, according to the most recent study led by Aakash Lamba, a researcher at the National University of Singapore’s Centre for Nature-based Climate Change Solutions. The study was released in the most recent issue of the esteemed journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.

Status of tiger reserves in India

One of India’s most charismatic and well-protected wild species is the tiger. India’s conservation measures are essential to the long-term survival of tigers and the persistence of their related habitats, which offer a variety of economic and sociocultural functions. India is the country with the highest percentage of wild tigers in the world. Although Project Tiger was initiated in 1973 to save India’s wild tigers from extinction, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) was founded in 2005 to monitor and develop India’s national tiger conservation strategy. As part of this programme, significant protected areas in India were declared as tiger reserves.

The Tiger Reserves in India represent one of the best conservation models in the world, offering habitat for the preservation of biodiversity and the welfare of humans. They are the top locations for tourism that focuses on the environment. With the introduction of “Project Tiger” by the Indian government in 1973, a significant conservation effort was started. To date, India has established a network of 53 Tiger Reserves spanning over 18 States. In the fifth report of of Management Effectiveness Evaluation (MEE) of Tiger reserves 2022, 51 Tiger Reserves totaling 73,765.57 square kilometers are being evaluated, with 40,787.15 square kilometers serving as the core and 32,978.42 square kilometers as the buffer zone. 

Jim Corbett National Park: Paradise of Tigers for the fact that it holds a large population of tigers in its breathtaking landscapes. Named after the legendary tiger hunter turned naturalist Jim Corbett (1875-1955), the proud destination ‘Jim Corbett National Park’ was the first national park of India. 

India’s Carbon emissions

Global warming and climate change are important topics in the twenty-first century because of anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gasses (GHGs), which are predominantly carbon dioxide (CO2), which is emitted by human-caused actions like burning fossil fuels and deforestation. 

With a growing economy and population, India depends on fossil fuel energy, which supplies around 74% of its needs. Rapid economic growth and rising energy demand are increasing the usage of fossil fuels, which has led to a significant rise in CO2 emissions nationwide.

Urbanization, industrialisation, settlements, mining, and agriculture have all contributed to the loss of forest cover. Rapid urbanization and forest loss are two examples of land use changes that can result in significant carbon emissions and global climate change. In contrast, forests act as both carbon sources and sinks, significantly affecting the global climate pattern. By removing CO2 from the atmosphere and storing it in plant biomass, a process known as carbon sequestration, forests contribute to reducing climate change. 

According to the World Bank Report 2022, India’s forest area makes up 24.3% of its total land area and plays a significant role in the nation’s carbon stock. As a result, it’s crucial to consider how well India’s forests can reduce CO2 emissions.

Carbon sequestration through forest restoration 

Forests can act as either net carbon emitters or net carbon sinks in the carbon cycle, depending on their unique traits and regional conditions. By soaking up atmospheric carbon dioxide and turning it into biomass through photosynthesis, forests act as carbon sinks. After that, sequestered carbon builds up in biomass, deadwood, litter, and forest soils. Respiration and oxidation, as well as intentional or unintentional effects of human activity (such as harvesting, fires, and deforestation), cause the release of carbon from forest ecosystems. Climate change has an impact on forests and how they participate in the carbon cycle. The health and production of forests are challenging to forecast and can be negatively or positively impacted by changes in rainfall and temperature. 

The IPCC, in its special report of 2018, suggested that by 2030, a 9% increase in the total area of forests, woods, and wooded savannas could absorb one-fourth of the atmospheric carbon needed to comply with 1.5°C pathways. In actuality, this entails the addition of new forest covering an area of around 350 million hectares (Mha), or an area roughly the size of India. 

Environmental economics behind the tiger reserves

According to a study by the National University of Singapore, the NTCA’s declaration of new tiger reserves and the protection of those reserves also prevented the emission of more than a million tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere. The possible adverse effects, which are thought to cost more than Rs 769 crore, are mitigated by these essential emission reductions. This conservation strategy helps avoid these possible harms to the Indian economy by preserving carbon through the protection of forests. Additionally, these additional protection measures may generate over 50 crores in potential revenue if sold as carbon offsets, which would go towards funding programmes for tiger conservation and climate change mitigation.

Dr Dipankar Lahkar, Senior manager at Tiger Research and Conservation Division (TRCD) of Aaranyak, told CFC that “By establishing Tiger Reserves, a landscape-based conservation strategy, offers options to protect a larger landscape by putting into place conservation strategies that could not only protect tigers, the entire biodiversity, and have a substantial influence on CO2 emission reductions. Aside from that, many of the major rivers that pass through Tiger Reserves provide water for billions of people and support their agricultural activities and help fight climate change.”

The most significant innovative aspect of Lamba’s research is that it contributes to the quantification of the additional advantages of a species-focused conservation effort to combat climate change. It differs from numerous earlier studies that calculated the total biomass of carbon in tiger reserves’ woods. Despite the fact that the NTCA’s policy does not directly aim to combat climate change, it can show that there are significant advantages through averted deforestation and subsequent greenhouse emissions from the loss of forests. The study uses complex modeling methods to show how much of this total carbon biomass forest would have been lost had the NTCA not granted tiger reserves special protection. 

Lamba concludes by saying, “Protecting tigers brings carbon benefits through the conservation of their habitats. Tigers typically inhabit areas rich in biodiversity. Protecting tigers inherently means preserving these forests, leading to increased absorption of CO2 from the atmosphere and making sure that the carbon biomass in these forests stays locked into the ground rather than being released into the atmosphere.”

References:

1. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37231303/
2. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2212041617303339?via%3Dihub
3. https://www.ntca.gov.in/
4. https://ntca.gov.in/assets/uploads/Reports/MEE/MEE_2022_summary_Report.pdf
5. https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/22/9375
6. https://databank.worldbank.org/source/world-development-indicators#
7. https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/11/6/670
8. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772427122000304?via%3Dihub
9. https://unece.org/forests/carbon-sinks-and-sequestration#:~:text=Forests%20sequester%20carbon%20by%20capturing,litter%20and%20in%20forest%20soils.
10. https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/
11. http://www.aaranyak.org/
12. https://m.timesofindia.com/india/tiger-conservation-efforts-bring-carbon-benefits-worth-rs-769-crore/amp_articleshow/100924231.cms

Image source: https://www.pexels.com/photo/two-orange-tigers-sitting-beside-each-other-814898/