Forest hotspots pinpointed for climate and wildlife

A UN atlas pinpointed parts of forests from the Amazon to Madagascar where better protection could give the twin benefits of slowing global warming and preserving rare wildlife.

The atlas, during the UN climate talks in Poznan, Poland, identified hotspots with a high diversity of animals and plants in forests that were also big stores of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, in trees and soils.

"It shows overlaps between carbon stored and areas of biodiversity importance," Barney Dickson, of the World Conservation Monitoring Centre of the UN Environment Programme, told Reuters.

"This offers the prospect of a double dividend," he said of the atlas, meant to guide governments in deciding where to protect forests by slowing logging and clearing of forests.

If a government wanted to aid gorillas and other great apes, forests in part of the eastern Congo basin could be set aside. Rare birds and amphibians could be helped by protecting carbon-rich forests in Ecuador.

Elsewhere, it pointed to parts of the Amazon basin, the tip of South Africa, central Papua New Guinea, parts of the Philippines and most of Madagascar as among priority areas.

The 187-nation talks of 11,000 delegates in Poznan are examining schemes to slow the rate of deforestation, such as payments to preserve tropical forests.

Current deforestation rates release about 20 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions by mankind, led by burning fossil fuels.

Some UN studies have said the world is facing the worst extinction crisis since the dinosaurs were wiped out 65 million years ago, due to factors such as destruction of habitats, rising human populations and climate change.