India’s conservation priorities often revolve around charismatic species such as the tiger. But what if the same conservation model is expanded to other species? That’s what researchers explored through a new research published in Conservation Letters. The paper suggests nine “anchor species” whose habitat conservation could simultaneously benefit biodiversity and climate mitigation.

Sambar deer (Rusa unicolor), dhole (Cuon alpinus), king cobra (Ophiophagus hannah), gaur (Bos gaurus), sloth bear (Melursus ursinus), Indian pangolin (Manis crassicaudata), great hornbill (Buceros bicornis), tiger (Pathera tigris) and the leopard (Panthera pardus) make up the anchor species. Habitat protection of at least any one of these nine key species could help conserve more than 700 vertebrates and around 1.1 gigatonnes of carbon (above-ground) across India, notes the study.

“Biodiversity is often an afterthought in carbon markets. It’s always carbon first, biodiversity second,” says co-author Aakash Lamba, pointing at how existing frameworks like Climate, Community and Biodiversity Standards frame biodiversity as an added benefit of carbon-financed climate projects, rather than considering biodiversity as central to climate mitigation. A conservation scientist at the Centre for Nature-based Climate Solutions at the National University of Singapore, Lamba emphasises on a species-centred conservation model.

The idea is simple: the more you conserve forests, which in this case are the habitats of nine anchor species, the higher the conservation of natural carbon stocks. For each species, researchers measured two things — first, how many other vertebrate species co-occurred in its habitat and second, how much above-ground carbon was stored within that habitat. By doing this, the study establishes a link between species conservation and climate action through habitat.

For example, sambar deer may seem like a biodiversity concern. But protecting its habitat can also mean protecting vast amounts of carbon. The study estimates 3.12 gigatonnes of above-ground carbon within a sambar habitat. The habitats of sambar deer, leopard and dhole can help shelter more than half of the above-ground carbon and half of the co-occurring species in India, according to the paper.

Lamba notes that people often assume tigers are the only high-impact conservation investment because of the focus it received in India’s conservation history. “What our study shows is that there are several other charismatic species that can generate equal or even greater biodiversity and climate returns,” he says.

Protected area expansion through species conservation model

The study has been published at a time India faces mounting pressure to expand its protected area network to meet the 30×30 target, a global conservation target to protect 30% of the Earth’s land and ocean by 2030, under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. Currently, only about 5% of the country’s land is protected. Researchers argue that species-centred conservation could be one key pathway to meet India’s 30×30 goal.

The study builds on Lamba’s earlier research showing that tiger reserves have generated substantial climate benefits. The 2023 study found that between 2007 and 2020, enhanced protection within tiger reserves led to a net avoided forest loss of over 5,800 hectares, accounting for more than a million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions.

Lamba asked himself: “Had tiger conservation not been implemented, what would have been the forest loss?” This counterfactual exercise led the team to a broader idea. Could other species also function as conservation anchors, attracting protection that delivers benefits far beyond the species themselves?

To answer this question, the team generated high-resolution habitat maps for more than 2000 vertebrates including mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians in the IUCN Red List. These maps were developed using Area of Habitat modelling, which refines broad species range maps by accounting for habitat suitability and elevation. “Area of Habitat maps provide a much more realistic estimate of where species can actually occur,” he says.

From a pool of over 2000 habitat maps, the researchers focused on 160 vertebrates that are both protected under Schedule I of India’s Wildlife Protection Act and listed as endangered or vulnerable in IUCN Red List. Lamba said that these species were selected because they were most likely to gain policy attention, funding and conservation action.

The study also found that a majority of the land inhabited by anchor species lie outside India’s current protected area network. Particularly, habitats used by sambar deer (90.7%), dhole (88.2%) and leopard (75.1%) showed strong overlap beyond protected areas that may become important if India expands protection to meet its 30×30 targets.

Lamba says that habitat conservation of non-charismatic species like the sambar deer and Indian pangolin could yield carbon benefits as they often inhabit areas that fall outside formal national parks or wildlife sanctuaries.

Vikram Aditya, principal scientist and faculty at Centre for Wildlife Studies, Bengaluru, who was not involved in this study, notes that the study validates what was intuitively known to science through the umbrella species concept by presenting quantitative data on the correlation between habitat conservation and natural carbon stock.

“One species that I found generalist in their analysis is the leopard. The leopard does not require forests. It can live in grassland, it can live close to villages. Similarly, sambar deer don’t live in all forests. They only live in high quality dense forests, unlike chital,” he says while arguing that it is difficult to draw simplistic inference on biodiversity and carbon stock based solely on the study results. He suggests that further investigation is required to fully understand the outcomes.

Responding to this, Lamba points out that leopards were found to have the greatest overlap with other vertebrates, as they are found across forests, grasslands, semi-arid deserts and rocky mountain slopes, overlapping with more than 1,500 species.

However, Aditya suggests that finer scale mapping would have provided more accurate results, noting that future research can expand the anchor species concept to non-forest areas to find how local biodiversity and ecosystems can benefit from carbon sink.

Next generation conservation

In India, initiatives like Project Tiger and Project Elephant receive dedicated funding, administrative support and visibility. The research argues that expanding this model to other anchor species may be politically easier than creating entirely new conservation mechanisms.

Lamba describes the concept of “anchor species” as the next generation conservation model. Alok Bang, ecologist and evolutionary biologist and faculty at Azim Premji University, Bhopal, who was not involved in the study shares that the challenge today is not identifying conservation priorities but implementing them in countries with limited resources.

“What I find most interesting is not that nine anchor species were identified, but the species that were selected. The list includes dholes and leopards, which are species historically overlooked as primary conservation priorities in India, while charismatic flagships such as lions and elephants are absent from the list,” he notes. Bang says the study’s larger contribution lies in replacing subjective conservation priorities with a transparent and quantitative framework that can be tested and refined.

He, however, notes that since the approach rewards species that overlap with both biodiversity and carbon-rich habitats, it may favour terrestrial over aquatic ecosystems and forests over grasslands or arid and semi-arid ecosystems.

“Indian ecologists have repeatedly highlighted how grasslands and dryland ecosystems are often misclassified as degraded forests. This results in unsurprising exits of species such as the Great Indian Bustard from mainstream conservation discussions, despite being a critically endangered endemic species,” he highlights in an email to Mongabay-India.

However, Lamba says that the great Indian bustard is part of the entire analysis but since the study’s primary focus was to create a statistical link between biodiversity and natural carbon stock, by design, the research supports forest-dwelling species. He adds: “This is a first jab at creating a new paradigm which produces a real lever around flagship species. This will help create a new framework for biodiversity conservation while simultaneously achieving India’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC).” He highlights that having designated protected areas for select species, like anchor species, the government can also generate additional revenue through ecotourism, and wildlife safaris.

Banner image: A sloth bear in Daroji Sloth Bear Sanctuary in Karnataka. Image by Bikash Das via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).

Citation:

Lamba, A., Zeng, Y., Sreekar, R., Rege, A., Teo, H.C., & Koh, L. P. (2026). Anchoring India’s umbrella species to biodiversity and climate gains. Conservation Letters, 19(3). doi:10.1111/con4.70059

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AnimalsBig CatsBiodiversityBiosphere reservesBirdsCarbon emissionsCatsClimate ChangeClimate Change MitigationConservationEcologyEnvironmentForestsTigersWildlifeIndia

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