Photo credit: Girishacf from Getty Images.
Written by Magnus Sylvén & May Scott.
New research funded by the Chinese government shows that protecting Tigers can significantly increase forest carbon storage — advancing the goals of both the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
A new study, published in Global Change Biology (Roberts et al., 2025), reveals that forests with healthy populations of wild Tigers store more carbon and remove more CO₂ from the atmosphere than ‘empty forests’ without Tigers. This connection between wild animals and carbon sequestration provides additional compelling evidence that wildlife recovery is a critical, yet often overlooked, tool in climate mitigation. Of course, Tigers have their own intrinsic right to exist, like all other wildlife, but this link to the climate agenda provides policymakers such as in China with another compelling reason to protect and rewild them and their habitats.
Researchers collaborating from China’s Northeast Forestry University, India’s Nature Conservation Foundation, and NGO Panthera, looked at forests with and without wild tigers across Asia – including India, Nepal, South-east Asia, Indonesia, and Russian Far East. The results were striking: forests with Tigers store 1.5 – 2 x more carbon in vegetation and soil and thus serve as stronger carbon sinks than “empty forests” — where Tigers have disappeared due to human pressures. It was estimated that the Tiger across its distribution area enhanced the uptake of carbon dioxide by 160 million tons (0.16 Gt) annually, which corresponds to 57% of Malaysia’s CO 2 emissions from fossil fuels and industry in 2023 (228 Mt), 49% of Vietnam’s (335 Mt) or 5% of India’s (3,062 Mt).
Photo credit: Ksumano from Getty Images.
This happens because Tigers, as apex predators, regulate large herbivore populations, thereby preventing overconsumption of vegetation and promoting carbon storage in trees, plants, and soils. This top-down influence — known as a trophic cascade — can boost the carbon-sequestering capacity of forest ecosystems.
But the carbon relationship was context-dependent. The presence of the Tiger was most impactful in forests with low to intermediate vegetation biomass and lower deer diversity and abundance, such as in tropical/subtropical moist lowland forests. Tigers had less impact in temperate forests, tropical/subtropical dry forests, and tropical/subtropical moist montane forests.
This mechanism is part of what leading scientists now call “Animating the Carbon Cycle” — the role of wild animals in actively driving carbon dynamics.
Professor Oswald Schmitz, from Yale School of the Environment and a co-leader of the Animating the Carbon Cycle initiative, hailed the findings as a leap forward. In the invited commentary, Schmitz emphasises the importance of recognising animals as active climate heroes, not just passive victims of ecosystem change, he says:
“These findings are sure to excite those working on the frontlines of tackling biodiversity loss and climate change by showing how both looming problems can be solved together.”
Photo credit: Bhavya Joshi.
Importantly, this is not just theory. The research used real-world satellite data and field surveys across four major forest types — temperate forests, subtropical/tropical moist lowland forests, subtropical/tropical dry forests, and subtropical/tropical moist montane forests. The research builds on the robust science that shows other key species act as a bridge between biodiversity and climate, including the Yale/GRA carbon capture framework model that helps to quantify this impact. The application of this model at three locations in Argentina, Chile, and Mexico in 2024-2025 have demonstrated a similar positive impact of two other Big Cat species – the Jaguar and Puma:
- Grasslands in Patagonia National Park, Chile, with Puma and Guanaco,
- Dry tropical forests in central and southern Mexico, with Puma, Jaguar, white-tailed Deer and Collared Peccary,
- Grasslands in Iberá National Park, Argentina, with Jaguar and Capybara.
The results of these studies will be published in the coming year.
Puma and Guanaco. Photo credit: Rewilding Chile
Practical Next Steps
The findings reveal practical next steps for Tiger reintroduction through context-specific insights into where Tiger recovery will meaningfully contribute to carbon capture, such as the 400,000 km2 of forests globally that could be targeted for reintroduction of Tigers. This precision equips policymakers and practitioners to make targeted investments in rewilding — ensuring that actions are evidence-based, ecologically appropriate, and climate-effective.
Global distribution of current tiger habitat where tigers are present, absent, or presence is uncertain, according to the latest Tiger Conservation Landscape (TCL) dataset (year 2020, forest habitat only) and tiger density sample locations used in this analysis. Source: Roberts et al (2025).
Photo credit: Alexas Fotos from pixabay.
Why It Matters for International Policy
This new research bridges the climate and biodiversity crises, providing decision-makers with tangible evidence that nature recovery — especially the restoration of functional wild animal populations — delivers dual benefits. Policymakers are increasingly recognising this.
The findings reinforce the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (targets 1, 2, 3, 4, and 11), calling for effective ecosystem management, restoration and protection, halting species extinction, promoting nature-based climate solutions, and recognising the role of biodiversity in ecosystem functions, including the climate.
At the same time, the research provides additional evidence that integrating wild animals such as tigers could help countries achieve their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), helping to meet the Paris Agreement’s goals by applying the comprehensive guidelines for incorporating wildlife into NDCs, an existing value that is currently widely overlooked.
This evidence forms a unique opportunity: to unite biodiversity and climate agendas, a priority endorsed by the CBD-UNFCCC-UNCCD Joint Work Programme, through evidence-based rewilding and wildlife restoration.
NB: The Roberts et al. research was funded by the Government of China: the National Key R&D Program of China and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.
Learn More
This science supports the mission of the Animating the Carbon Cycle initiative — co-led by the Global Rewilding Alliance and Yale School of the Environment — to show how wild animals shape the Earth’s carbon dynamics. Read more at animatingcarbon.earth
Photo credit: Cloudtail the Snow Leopard from Getty Images.