“While no one strategy is a silver bullet, our results provide clear evidence that we should begin by prioritising the forests we have left,”[...]. “And protection must go beyond avoiding deforestation. Avoiding forest disturbances from wildfires or logging delivered the greatest benefits for forest biodiversity.”

No single intervention was sufficient to reverse biodiversity and carbon losses across the entire study area.

“Restoration is essential where forests have been lost across large areas. But our study shows that investing in new forests makes little sense if, at the same time, we fail to protect existing forests,”

The paper: Protecting tropical forests is more cost-effective for biodiversity and climate than restoration