Biodiversity Conservation
Biodiversity Conservation
Biodiversity conservation represents one of the three Permian Global mission priorities.
At the project level, this means protecting habitats; delivering programs that improve opportunities for high conservation value (HCV) species, keystone species, and ecosystem networks; and designing community programs that halt illegal poaching, whilst encouraging local support for biodiversity monitoring and developing conservation opportunities like eco-tourism.
More broadly, with the help of our in-house biologists, ecologists, and conservation experts, along with external academic partners, Permian Global is adding to all areas of tropical biodiversity research.
Our mission to improve biodiversity
Our Mission to Improve Biodiversity
Intact tropical forests are some of the most complex, species-rich environments on the planet. Many of them are distinct biomes, home to endemic species found nowhere else on Earth.
The protection of these ecosystems is correlated to enhanced carbon storage. Through photosynthesis, tropical forests act as carbon sinks, absorbing large amounts of carbon dioxide and thus playing a crucial role in mitigating climate change.
Permian Global is committed to designing projects that apply the best scientific knowledge to creating conservation programs that ensure species and habitats are able to thrive.
Tropical forests contribute significantly to the Earth’s biodiversity, providing habitat and sustenance to a diversity of plant and animal species. They also influence regional and global weather patterns, helping to regulate temperature and precipitation levels. Among the ecological functions that contribute to this are seed dispersal and pollination. Seed dispersal, facilitated by various fauna, ensures that trees spread across a wide area, fostering a continual growth-cycle, which is integral for carbon storage. Seed dispersal is an imperative and intertwined element of conservation; without the agents of seed dispersal, there would be fewer trees, resulting in the sequestration of less carbon. Thus, the more biodiversity within the ecosystem, the more carbon is stored as a result.
Protecting as much threatened tropical forest as possible will be a determining factor in the fight against climate change.
Permian Global founding principles
Permian Global groups its driving motivations into three interdependent categories:
1. Mitigating the climate crisis through the protection of tropical forest landscapes that sequester and store carbon.
2. Improving the lives and opportunities for local people living in and around protected tropical forests.
3. Protecting and enhancing the biodiversity that depends on intact tropical forests. We recognise that mitigating the climate crisis through carbon sequestration is the primary driver of the second and third categories. Each category however is integrally related and mutually supportive of the others and all three are necessary for a maximally successful forest carbon project.
Each category requires deep expertise, extensive research, careful planning, and continual learning and adaptation.
Within each of these categories, we recognise principles that form the foundation for how decisions are made and programmes delivered in the field.
Protect, promote, and defend the natural environments within Permian Global project sites.
Our biodiversity principles:
Permian Global has collaborated across its teams of experts to produce a set of fundamental principles to encompass the necessary tools for successful biodiversity development within our projects.
To download the principles click HERE
Ecosystem Services
Ecosystem Services
Healthy tropical forests provide many benefits, such as filtering air and water, controlling climate, preventing flooding and soil erosion, and providing food and fuel for local people. These benefits have been shown to be significantly enhanced in tropical forest areas compared to areas where forests have been destroyed or degraded.
When forests are kept intact, the interaction of different species helps maintain healthy ecosystems, making them more robust and resilient to shocks. Ecosystems thrive where there is greater biodiversity, where different species exist together in a balance of competition, predation and symbiosis. Carefully designed conservation can help to maintain this balance, especially in areas that have experienced degradation.
Disruption of these ecosystems can have devastating consequences that extend far beyond the immediate area. For example, problems like ‘monkey malaria’ in Malaysia have been linked to deforestation, showing that destruction can have harmful effects. On the other hand, stopping harmful activities like logging can improve water quality and increase fish populations, which are beneficial to local communities. Eliminating destructive activities and allowing tropical forests to remain standing provides immense benefits, extending beyond the ecosystems and local communities – the enhanced carbon sequestration is of global interest.
Deforestation due to logging, agriculture expansion, and urbanization is disrupting the ecological balance and endangering the species that depend on these habitats. The loss of biodiversity further hampers seed dispersal and other ecological processes, creating a vicious cycle of degradation.
Biodiversity for people
Biodiversity for People
Moreover, local communities that depend on healthy forests for sustenance are also severely affected, which can lead to increased poverty and exacerbates the threats to the forest environment.
It is imperative to prioritize conservation and sustainable management of tropical forests to preserve their intrinsic value so that wildlife and people can continue reaping the environmental benefits they provide. Tropical forest conservation needs to be prioritized as part of the plan to address climate change, as it is the only way for their capacity to absorb and store carbon to be fully realized.
For Permian Global, the climate crisis and the biodiversity crisis are part of the same planetary anthropogenic crisis. By addressing one we can help address the other, whilst also supporting the people living in and around a forest area.
Stephen Rumsey
Dr. Sarah Scriven
Dr. Gerard Bertrand
Brooke Davis Capuano
Dr. Sunarto
Itala Yepez
Albert Aguiar
Juan Carlos Rivas
Dr. Miguel Milano
Planning a Conservation Program
- Conserve, and where necessary and possible, restore biodiversity at all Permian project sites.
- Maintain biological interactions amongst species and the environment to maintain the ecological services these interactions provide.
- Bridge traditional and local knowledge with scientific research and modern technologies to create more comprehensive and effective monitoring systems and cutting-edge conservation priorities.
- Encourage as much participation of local people in project programs as possible, including monitoring, data collection and conservation or restoration activities.
- Develop and support sustainable programs, practices and technologies for biodiversity activities, which provide income to local communities, including ecotourism.
Conservation in Practice
UNDERSTAND:
- 1. Assess the biodiversity value of our sites.
- 2. Develop a vegetation/habitat map, which includes geological and biogeological characteristics, for each project site that also shows the context at the larger landscape-scales.
- 3. Document the occurrence of HCV species, globally or locally recognized threatened and endangered species (including restricted endemic species) and commercially important species.
PLAN:
- 4. Develop programs to quantify and document trends in abundance and distribution of HCV species.
- 5. Determine whether an HCV or keystone species currently exists in the area or previously existed on the site and determine whether or not re-introduction of species is appropriate or feasible.
- 6. Work toward the goal of increasing biological inventories for each site, starting with vertebrates for animals and emergent dominants for plants and trees.
ACT:
- 7. Use the most effective technologies and censusing techniques, such as camera traps, autonomous sound recorders, drones with thermal/multispectral cameras, and remote sensing for gathering data.
- 8. Established within Permian Global, a central video, photo and audio recording archive for company-wide use and, whenever feasible, use open data/ citizen science platforms to store information and make the results of our projects accessible for partner researchers and open to auditing.
- 9. Examine the historic records for species occurrence from the scientific literature, government records and museum collections for each Permian site.
- 10. Interview local residents, including hunters, to gather local knowledge of species occurrences and their cultural relevance.
- 11. Understand external biodiversity plans relevant to the project area held by government bodies and other key stakeholders.
- 12. Formulate the project’s biodiversity management/recovery plan showing the contribution of the project and its integration with the government and other relevant plans.
- 13. Develop engagement strategy for biodiversity monitoring and conservation works for local stakeholders.
Project Locations
Project Locations
Measuring a project’s success on the improvements made to biodiversity involves a deep understanding of not only the animal and plant species in the region, but also the natural biological networks that make up the entire ecosystem. For each Permian Global project, we must develop a highly detailed ecological map of the landscape; understand the specific threats to species or ecological functions; and use this knowledge to design conservation activities that are best suited to improve the overall ecosystem integrity of the project.
Biodiversity monitoring activities within projects:
Tropical forests are hot spots for biodiversity. Permian Global assures that each project has on-site biodiversity patrols, monitoring surveys and data collection to establish protection of the biome and all high conservation value species within. The local teams are trained in installing and deploying camera traps for monitoring activity within the project area.
General COP15 Biodiversity Conference outcomes:
Adoption of the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) during COP15 in 2022, marked a turning point in recognition of the critical role of preserving biodiversity in order to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) and to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. The landmark agreement supports a comprehensive plan, addressing resources needed for implementation, financial support, safeguarding the rights of indigenous peoples, and setting clear targets to address overexploitation and unsustainable practices. The framework states that “Governments and societies need to determine priorities and[…] internalize the value of nature and recognize the cost of inaction”, with a vision of “living in harmony with nature by 2050”.
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