 How can biodiversity-focused organizations make the most of their conservation investments in the tropics? That's the question Oscar Venter addresses in a new paper in the December issue of Conservation Letters. I'm Nate Spillman, and I'm with the Society for Conservation Biology. And I'm joined by Oscar Venter from the University of Queensland. Oscar is the lead author of Acting Optimally for Biodiversity Conservation in a World Obsessed with Red. Oscar, congratulations on your paper and thanks for taking the time to talk with us about it. Thank you, Nate. It's a pleasure to talk with you, sir. First, my first question is, what is red and what is this objective? Well, tropical deforestation is one of the largest sources of carbon emissions globally. So the red is essentially a mechanism to provide the funds and the assistance to developing countries to help them reduce their rates of deforestation. So the real objective behind red is to contribute to mitigating climate change by slowing tropical deforestation. And what is the purpose of your paper? And I'll just give the title one more time. It's called Acting Optimally for Biodiversity Conservation in a World Obsessed with Red. Well, tropical forests are also home to about half of the world's biodiversity. So they're really important for conservation. But this biodiversity is not evenly distributed. It's concentrated in certain areas. So the way we view it is there are essentially two organizations working in considered tropical forests. The first are these new red actors and then more traditional biodiversity-focused organizations or actors. And the question that we address in our study is how can biodiversity actors influence red actors to ensure that their programs and their initiatives contribute to biodiversity conservation? Very, very interesting. Your study area is a Barao Regency in Indonesia. And I'm curious why you selected Barao as the study area. Well, we decided to address that question. We really should work in a real-world situation. So we partnered with the Nature Conservancy where they're developing a project in the Barao District in Indonesia. We chose that district because it's a very large area. It comes from multiple land uses. And there's a red project called the Barao Forest Carbon Program, so a red actor also working in the region in addition to the Nature Conservancy, which is a more traditional biodiversity actor. OK. And over to the first of your survey, why should a biodiversity-focused organizations pay attention to the study? Well, what we discovered is that there's considerable potential for the red actor to contribute to the Nature Conservancy's objectives in Barao, but it was important, or it was necessary, for the Nature Conservancy to actually engage the red actor to find locations and strategies that contribute to both of their objectives simultaneously. So the important point here is you can't just sit either by and expect red to contribute to biodiversity conservation. I see. Biodiversity. Do you see these conservation actors taking advantage of the opportunities within red, or do you find that they're still unaware about how they can use red to improve the way they pursue conservation in the tropics? Well, I think it's pretty clear that red is fundamentally changing the way tropical forests are conserved. And what we're seeing at the moment is that biodiversity organizations are actually engaging the red process. And in fact, they're acting as the developers for quite a number of red projects. What I'm not sure about is whether they've taken a systematic view of the best ways to engage the red process, and that's what we're trying to address in our study. I see, I see. With respect to that, what did you find to be the most effective strategy for conservation actors to pursue conservation in the tropics? Well, we looked at a number of different scenarios, but what really stood out as the most reliable way to ensure red contributes to biodiversity is to actually collaborate with biodiversity actors so that pool their funding and work together to identify strategies that are mutually beneficial. I see. And do you see any obstacles that are preventing biodiversity actors from taking advantage of red? I'm sure there's a few, but I think the first one that jumps to mind is really the transaction costs of these two different actors sitting down together to negotiate mutually beneficial strategies. I imagine in the real world that might be difficult to do, though in some situations, I think there is possible. So what more do you want to know about this topic? Is there something in your study that you came across that you feel needs further exploration? Yeah, I think we constrained our study into a single forested landscape in Indonesia. But of course, the world is made up of all different sorts of habitats, wetlands and grasslands. And I think it'd be interesting to know how can biodiversity organizations strategize with red across those different sorts of habitats. So, Asker, what is the bottom line of the study with respect to how red can benefit biodiversity in the tropics? Well, red is emerging as a significant new actor working to conserve tropical forests. The bottom line from our study is that biodiversity actors really can't sit idly by and expect the red mechanism to meet its objectives, the biodiversity objectives. Really, the mechanism does need to be engaged in some way. Okay. All right, well, I'd like to thank you for your time. It's a fascinating paper. The paper is titled Acting Optimally for Biodiversity in a World Obsessed with Red. It's in the December 2013 issue of Conservation Letters. It's freely available to SCB members via their SCB member phone page. I'm just log in and click on the link for Conservation Letters. So, Asker, thank you again for joining us. I really enjoyed the paper and I enjoyed speaking with you today. It's my pleasure, and I thank you very much for asking these interesting questions. No problem.