Carbon forestry projects that plant trees or protect existing forests can have significant positive and negative welfare implications for wildlife depending on species composition and management practices.
Carbon forestry projects vary enormously in their wildlife welfare implications. Native woodland regeneration and tropical forest protection schemes deliver strong welfare co-benefits by restoring and maintaining complex habitats that support diverse wildlife populations. Monoculture commercial plantation schemes and projects that displace traditional land management can harm wildlife welfare by replacing diverse habitats with simplified ones. The welfare dimension of carbon forestry is largely invisible in project evaluation frameworks that focus on carbon sequestration metrics. Integrating wildlife welfare assessment into carbon project standards would improve outcomes for both biodiversity and individual animal welfare.