Avoided deforestation in Gabon
In the wake of the recent UN Climate Conference in Bali, 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 reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD).
Much of our current understanding on tropical forest ecosystems is based on studies conducted in Central America, the Brazilian Amazon and South- East Asia. Scientifically, the central African rainforest is the least understood of the world’s major tropical forest regions, in a period when its large cultural and biological diversity is buffeted by an increasingly complex array of economic and political factors. Until recently, the Congo Basin Forest (CBF) had received little attention in terms of climate change issues and the opportunity of tropical forest carbon trading.
The CBF is the second largest contiguous area of humid tropical forests after the Amazon, or approximately 20% of the world’s remaining tropical forest. It extends over six countries: Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Republic of Congo and Gabon. It is the richest biome of the African continent, harbouring more than half of Africa’s fauna and flora. Blocks of intact natural forest still remain in DRC, Gabon and the Congo, with DRC holding 63% of the total remaining forest. As well as endangered wildlife, central African forests also harbour vast reserves of minerals which still remain to be tapped. Furthermore, there is a huge potential for the generation of hydroelectric power.
The aim of this study is to produce an above-ground biomass and carbon map of the CBF using Gabon as a case study. The data we are using includes ALOSPALSAR data and a suite of other satellite imagery, permanent plots and forestry inventories. Wood density measurements and the development of allometric equations for the region will increase the accuracy of the biomass and carbon calculations. Currently, we have access to over 40 plots and transects and over 500,000 hectares of forest inventories scattered across the country. More data access to the Northeast and Southwest will be available by the end of 2008. The outputs of this study will be to (1) produce a high-resolution map of above-ground biomass and carbon for Gabon and (2) extrapolate this to the regional level for the CBF using further satellite imagery, permanent plots, forestry inventories and ground-truthing.
This is the first comprehensive dataset of its kind for Gabon and perhaps the Central African region where research institutions, NGOs and the logging sector are combining and sharing their data in a collaborative effort to inform both the scientific and policy debates around carbon stocks, threats and opportunities for the CBF.
Current partners include:
- WWF
- Missouri Botanical Garden (Miguel Leal and Gilles Dauby)
- Logging companies (Leroy Gabon, PreciousWoods- CEB, SFIK, Rimbunan Hijau, Cora Wood Gabon, CBG, Bordamur, tt Timber-DLH Gabon)
- Forest consultancy companies (Terrea and SylvAfrica)
- Gabonese logging association (Union des Forestiers Industriels du Gabon et Amenagistes – UFIGA) The Gabonese national institute for tropical ecology (IRET)
- Doctoral students: Florence Palla (University of Paris), Marte Mapangou, Michelle Lee (University of Oxford), Matieu Henry (University of Tuscia).