We agree that the challenge of protecting biodiversity — to be considered at the upcoming Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity — must not be eclipsed by climate-change concerns (see S. Maxwell et al. Nature 536, 143–145; 2016). These are complementary but separate issues.

On Pemba Island, Tanzania, for example, we conducted systematic but open-ended interviews with village environmental committees, male and female focus groups, and randomly selected households in 11 villages, backed up by less-intensive interviews in 18 wards last year (unpublished results).

These revealed a general understanding of the dangers of immediate climate change and of the merits of a pending REDD+ programme (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation). Local expectations are high that reducing deforestation and promoting reforestation will result in financial benefits through carbon accreditation.

By contrast, there is widespread, illegal hunting of animals in forest patches across the island. Hunted species include tree hyraxes (Dendrohyrax validus), blue duikers (Philantomba monticola), Pemba flying foxes (Pteropus voeltzkowi) and coconut crabs (Birgus latro).

Our case study highlights the mismatch between climate-change mitigation and conserving biodiversity in the tropics. Here, effective efforts to protect trees and reduce climate change may result in conserving only an empty forest.