Ecosystem services, wood density variation and biomass patterns with respect to deforestation and degradation of the Congo Basin Forests

 

 

 

The context

According to the Stern Report on climate change, deforestation is responsible for 10-20 % of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. If current trends continue, tropical deforestation will emit 3 billion tonnes of carbon (3 GtC) each year to the atmosphere, with emissions from deforestation throughout the world expected to total 40 Gt of carbon over the period 2008-2012. The combined effects of logging, clear-cutting and forest regrowth on abandoned land are estimated to have released 10-25% of global human-induced emissions. Current rates of deforestation in Indonesia and Brazil alone would equal four-fifths of the annual reduction target for Annex I countries of the Kyoto Protocol. However, under the Kyoto Protocol, reducing emissions from tropical deforestation cannot be credited in the first commitment period.

 

In the wake of the recent UN Climate Conference in Bali and the debate on Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD), the issue of slowing down tropical deforestation has risen to the top of the international policy agenda. New mechanisms are being developed that will, in principle, allow transfer of payments to tropical forest regions, as a payment for the ecosystems services they are protecting. The discussion on ecosystems services is dominated by the carbon storage and sequestration service provided by forests, but there is burgeoning interest in the other ecosystems services provided by the forests, either as co-benefits to any carbon payment scheme or as directly fundable resources in themselves.

 

Congo Basin Forest Facts (COMIFAC, 2005)

·   The Congo Basin has the second largest contiguous area of humid tropical forests after the Amazon, or ~ 20% of the world’s remaining tropical forest;

·    Gaston et al. (1998) suggest that the reduction in the aboveground carbon pool attributable to deforestation and biomass reduction by human activities (degradation) in the Congo Basin between 1980 and 1990 was 4433 Tg (of the original 25291 Tg aboveground carbon pool);

·    Over 50 % of the forests not in protected areas have been allocated for logging concessions;

·    The forest industry’s annual timber sales is worth ~ US $ 330 billion;

·    More than 60 million people inhabit the region and about 70% depend on natural resources for their livelihoods;

·    If the current rate of deforestation continues, 70% of the region’s forests could be lost by 2040.

 

Key research objectives

To better understand the complexity of deforestation processes, carbon cycles and underlying drivers for deforestation in the Congo Basin by:

1.   Providing an overview of ecosystem services the Congo Basin Forests provide and highlighting the knowledge gaps, threats and opportunities;

2.   Calculating the above ground biomass (and hence above-ground carbon stocks) by using detailed forest plot data, logging inventories as spatial intermediate data and satellite imagery and remote sensing to create a biomass map;

3.   Examining wood density variation within common tree species across the basin and its implications on biomass calculations.

 

Key outputs

This research will feed directly into the UN's post-Kyoto REDD policy discussion by informing the debate on the Congo Basin Forest's carbon stocks, emission threats and conservation opportunities. From an academic perspective, the findings of the work will be published in the peer-reviewed literature.