By Trisha Atwood and Nathan Roberts

Among the emerald-blue waters of Shark Bay, Western Australia, a tiger shark glides silently over vast seagrass meadows in search of green sea turtles that have wandered too far from safety. But the turtles are not defenseless. Over thousands of years, they have evolved behaviors that reduce their chances of becoming prey. Rather than grazing freely on the seagrass, they tend to feed along the edges of the seagrass beds, staying close to deeper water where they can make a rapid escape if a shark appears.

This evolutionary dance between predator and prey has created what ecologists call a “seascape of fear,” a world shaped not only by where animals are eaten, but by where they are afraid to go. And that fear effect ripples far beyond sharks and turtles. By limiting where turtles graze, sharks help determine where lush seagrass meadows thrive.

That matters because seagrass is one of the planet’s most effective natural carbon stores. Healthy meadows capture carbon from the atmosphere and bury it in the seabed, where it can remain locked away for centuries if left undisturbed. Hence, sharks indirectly help protect these underwater carbon reservoirs by altering where turtles graze, enhancing the carbon capture of the seagrass meadows they patrol.

Half a world away, a similar story unfolds in the forests of Asia, where tigers are not only icons of wilderness, but also guardians of some of Earth’s most carbon-rich forests. By regulating populations of deer and wild boar, tigers help prevent overbrowsing of young vegetation, allowing forests to regenerate and sequester carbon. The tigers’ influence extends beyond predator-prey relationships. As an internationally important conservation flagship species, increased protection of tigers and occupied forests frequently also means protecting vast living carbon reservoirs against deforestation and degradation, helping to stabilize the global climate through reduced emissions and increased atmospheric carbon removals.

Sharks and tigers are only part of a much larger story and body of growing evidence. For example, elephants disperse the seeds of carbon-rich trees across African forests. In the Arctic, muskoxen compact snow in ways that help keep soils colder and carbon locked underground longer. Together, these examples and others are revealing the surprising ways by which wild animals influence climate-related processes and the ability of ecosystems to withstand a rapidly changing world.

A new scientific consensus on wildlife and climate change

For decades, the role of wildlife in climate change mitigation received little attention from either scientists or policymakers. Because animals represent less than 1% of Earth’s living biomass, research and policy focused primarily on plants as engines of carbon storage and nature-based climate solutions. Yet an expanding body of scientific evidence is demonstrating that animals can shape carbon cycling and ecosystem functions in ways that influence climate outcomes. As this evidence grows, it is beginning to reshape international discussions about climate policy and conservation.

At this year’s June Climate Meetings in Bonn, Germany, scientists from around the world released a global “scientific consensus” recognizing that wild animals play important — and often overlooked — roles in climate regulation and ecosystem resilience.

Drafted by 12 international experts, the Scientific Consensus on Wildlife and Climate has already been signed by hundreds of scientists across dozens of countries.

The goal is not to argue that animals alone can solve climate change. They cannot. But the consensus reflects a growing recognition that climate change and biodiversity loss are not separate crises unfolding in parallel — they are deeply connected. As ecosystems lose species, they can also lose the ecological interactions that regulate carbon storage, nutrient cycling, and resilience to disturbance. At the same time, climate change further weakens ecosystems already stressed by biodiversity loss.

The consensus highlights that wildlife can act as an ally in efforts to address climate change. Through their roles in food webs, nutrient transport, ecosystem engineering, and other ecological processes, animals can influence how ecosystems store carbon and respond to environmental change. While it recognizes that the effects of wildlife vary among species and ecosystems, it highlights a broader principle: when animals influence ecosystem processes that shape climate outcomes, protecting and restoring wildlife may provide opportunities to advance multiple environmental agendas.

Bringing wildlife into climate policy

The consensus reveals an important policy challenge, namely that climate, biodiversity, and sustainable development are linked in the real world but are often governed through separate international frameworks. Thus, it calls for policymakers to better integrate wildlife into climate policy. Doing so could help countries build synergies across the Rio Conventions – the UNFCCC, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) – and simultaneously advance several SDGs, particularly SDG 13 (climate action), SDG 14 (life below water), and SDG 15 (life on land), among others.

The idea that animals play a meaningful role in climate outcomes is not entirely new to international policy. Several major biodiversity frameworks have already recognized links between wildlife and climate change, including decisions adopted under the CBD, resolutions of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), and the International Whaling Commission (IWC). However, these discussions have largely remained within biodiversity-focused forums.

What makes this moment significant is that the issue is now beginning to enter the global climate arena. This year marks one of the first major efforts to bring wildlife’s role in climate mitigation and adaptation directly to the UNFCCC – the primary international forum for climate policy and the institution responsible for landmark agreements such as the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Momentum is also building at the political level. At the African Union Biodiversity Summit ahead of the Belém Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC COP 30) last year, African leaders announced plans to endorse a ‘Wildlife for Climate Action Agenda and Declaration’ and called “upon the rest of the world to support Africa and Africa’s wildlife resources on this cause.” That Declaration was subsequently announced by the Government of Zimbabwe for launch at COP 31.

The initiative reflects growing international recognition that wildlife and healthy ecosystems are not only vulnerable to climate change but can also contribute to climate solutions. Together, the declaration and the scientific consensus are poised to catalyze a broader shift in how policymakers view the relationship between biodiversity and climate action – one that recognizes wildlife conservation not simply as an environmental objective, but as an important component of effective climate policy.

The message emerging from the scientific community and some global leaders is both simple and profound. Wild animals are active participants in shaping the resilience, stability, and future of the living systems upon which humanity depends. Correspondingly, they should be integral in climate action policies and frameworks.

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Trisha Atwood is Associate Professor of Aquatic Ecology and Global Change at Utah State University and co-author of the wildlife and climate consensus.

Nathan Roberts is Researcher at Northeast Forestry University, China, and co-author of the wildlife and climate consensus.