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Article
Alice Hughes
Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden
Corresponding Author
ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0675-7552
License:
This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License. Read Full License
Financially viable means to conserve biodiversity are urgently needed. We analyze how debt-for-nature swaps could conserve currently unprotected biodiversity priority-areas for six biomes in 67 countries under the debt service suspension initiative related to COVID19. Using novel methods and data, we find that the 67 countries hold over 22% of global priority-areas, yet 82.96% is unprotected. For 35 of the 67 countries, swapping 0.1% of public debt could conserve 100% of unprotected priority-areas. By swapping 5.09% of these countries’ total public debt (USD26.5 billion) in a pooled swap, 100% of priority-areas could be protected across the countries. Management costs could partly be covered through re-routed interest payments within the countries, with further annual funding of USD0.5-3.5 billion required.
One-Sentence Summary: We develop a framework for efficient application of debt-for-nature swaps to maximize biodiversity conservation.
Keywords
debt-for-nature swaps, biodiversity conservation, debt service suspension initiative
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There is NO Competing Interest.
This is a list of supplementary files associated with this preprint. Click to download.
- Datas1.xlsx
Data S1. Priorities and debt on a national basis.
- DataS2.xlsx
Data S2. Overlaps between species richness hotspots from IUCN/Birdlife and three indicies of ecosystem productivity.
- Datas3.xlsx
Data S3. Overlap between KBAs and priorities, and percentage forest loss since 2000 on a national basis.
- Datas4.xlsx
Data S4. Debt to GDP of 67 countries eligible for debt for Nature swaps.
- DataS5.xlsx
Data S5. Links to all data sources used in analysis.
- DataS6.xlsx
Data S6. Public external debt data in 2019 for 67 DSSI eligible countries.
- SupplementaryMaterials.docx
Supplementary Materials
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This preprint is under consideration at a Nature Portfolio Journal. A preprint is a preliminary version of a manuscript that has not completed peer review at a journal. Research Square does not conduct peer review prior to posting preprints. The posting of a preprint on this server should not be interpreted as an endorsement of its validity or suitability for dissemination as established information or for guiding clinical practice.
Nature journals have partnered with Research Square to offer In Review, a journal-integrated preprint deposition service.
Article
Alice Hughes
Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden
Corresponding Author
ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0675-7552
Badges
Prescreen
This manuscript passed our Prescreen assessment
Complete author information
Appropriate declaration statements
Potential risks to human health
Prescreen
Peer Review Timeline
CURRENT STATUS: Under Review
Version 1
Posted 09 Nov, 2021
Metrics
Comments: 0
PDF Downloads: ...
HTML Views: ...
Subject Areas
Conservation Biology
License:
This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License. Read Full License
Financially viable means to conserve biodiversity are urgently needed. We analyze how debt-for-nature swaps could conserve currently unprotected biodiversity priority-areas for six biomes in 67 countries under the debt service suspension initiative related to COVID19. Using novel methods and data, we find that the 67 countries hold over 22% of global priority-areas, yet 82.96% is unprotected. For 35 of the 67 countries, swapping 0.1% of public debt could conserve 100% of unprotected priority-areas. By swapping 5.09% of these countries’ total public debt (USD26.5 billion) in a pooled swap, 100% of priority-areas could be protected across the countries. Management costs could partly be covered through re-routed interest payments within the countries, with further annual funding of USD0.5-3.5 billion required.
One-Sentence Summary: We develop a framework for efficient application of debt-for-nature swaps to maximize biodiversity conservation.
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
There is NO Competing Interest.
This is a list of supplementary files associated with this preprint. Click to download.
- Datas1.xlsx
Data S1. Priorities and debt on a national basis.
- DataS2.xlsx
Data S2. Overlaps between species richness hotspots from IUCN/Birdlife and three indicies of ecosystem productivity.
- Datas3.xlsx
Data S3. Overlap between KBAs and priorities, and percentage forest loss since 2000 on a national basis.
- Datas4.xlsx
Data S4. Debt to GDP of 67 countries eligible for debt for Nature swaps.
- DataS5.xlsx
Data S5. Links to all data sources used in analysis.
- DataS6.xlsx
Data S6. Public external debt data in 2019 for 67 DSSI eligible countries.
- SupplementaryMaterials.docx
Supplementary Materials
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