The United Nations climate negotiations are focusing unprecedented attention on tropical forests and the urgent need to reduce sharply rates of deforestation and degradation to help avert dangerous climate change. While the emphasis has been on reducing the approximately 1.5 Gt of carbon emitted annually from the clearing and degradation of tropical forests (Gullison et al. 2007) through reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) in developing countries, these discussions also provide a rare opportunity to advance biodiversity conservation in tropical forests (Laurance 2008). Including REDD in the climate agreement that could result from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meeting in December 2009 could lead to financing for tropical forest conservation and sustainable management at scales never before seen (estimated at 1.2–10 billion U.S. dollars annually; Miles & Kapos 2008). It could also result in enhanced monitoring of tropical forest extent and condition globally and lead to a more sustainable paradigm of tropical land use.

This paper explores the implications of REDD design and implementation options for biodiversity conservation. From both a mitigation and biodiversity perspective, the most important steps are to ensure that REDD is included in the new global climate agreement and maximizes the area of tropical forest conserved. It may also be possible to include guidelines or incentives within a REDD framework or in national implementation to channel funding to areas of high biodiversity.