Scientists urge caution over animals as climate tools

Efforts to restore large animal populations have increasingly been framed as a way to capture atmospheric carbon. Massive creatures such as African elephants and oceanic whales store carbon in their tissues over long lifespans, prompting proposals to link their recovery directly to global climate mitigation strategies. However, a review published in Current Biology warns that relying on wildlife recovery for climate gains carries substantial uncertainty and notable risks.

Researchers evaluated how large wildlife species influence carbon cycling, focusing closely on data surrounding elephants and whales. While living whales lock carbon in their bodies and fertilize carbon-absorbing phytoplankton, their overall influence remains intricate. Elephants in Africa also demonstrate mixed impacts across ecosystems. Forest elephants disperse seeds that help woodlands regenerate, but both savanna and forest elephants frequently damage woody plants, altering carbon balances in unpredictable ways.

The study emphasizes that the climate benefits generated by large animals can take decades or centuries to fully materialize. In contrast, researchers stress that the urgent need to halt rising global temperatures requires immediate action, primarily by ending fossil fuel combustion. Because of these vastly different timelines, portraying animal recovery as a rapid climate solution could create misplaced expectations.

The authors also caution against tying wildlife conservation directly to carbon credit mechanisms or financial offset markets. Assigning monetary climate values to individual animals might encourage managers to prioritize carbon storage over general ecosystem stability. Researchers argue that protecting and restoring diminished wildlife must remain centered on solving the global biodiversity crisis rather than acting as a substitute for direct emissions reductions.