Fascinating: “It’s no secret that preserving and restoring wilderness areas is good for ecosystems, but a new study has pinpointed another major benefit to rewilding.
According to the study published in the journal Nature Climate Change, rewilding, or preserving and restoring wildlife and wilderness areas, could improve natural carbon sinks in ecosystems, therefore boosting natural methods of carbon capture and helping the world limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
Scientists studied nine wildlife species for the study: marine fish, whales, sharks, gray wolves, wildebeest, sea otters, musk oxen, African forest elephants and American bison. In their analysis, the study authors found that protecting or restoring the populations of just these nine species could collectively help ecosystems capture an additional 6.41 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year, or about 95% of carbon emissions needed to be captured in order to meet the Paris agreement’s 1.5°C target.”