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30
Disturbance
Regimes
Heavily Exploited Moderately Exploited
Undisturbed
Trees
Mg/ha
SE
Mg/ha
SE
Mg/ha
SE
Aboveground
Live component
58.0
50.4 123.3
179.7
467.1
70.0
Dead component
6.1
3.7 16.4
18.1
70.6
85.2
Total Aboveground 64.1
49.9 139.6
181.4
537.7
116.5
As % total
7.2
4.0 14.1
16.6
35.1
4.2
Belowground
Tree-roots
3.1
1.4 12.1
18.8
15.1
4.2
Total Soil
740.6
189.6 773.6
162.9
967.4
57.6
Total Belowground 743.6
190.9 785.7
149.8
982.5
60.8
As % total
92.8
4.0 85.9
16.6
64.9
4.2
T o t a l e c o s y s t e m
carbon stock (Mg/ha)
807.8
235.5 925.4
137.2
1520.2
163.9
Figure 4: Partitioning of carbon stocks within mangrove forests of different disturbance regimes in
Central Africa. Also see Appendix II.
Heavily exploited forests
Moderately exploited forests
Undisturbed exploited forests
Carbon density (Mg/ha)
Carbon density (Mg/ha)
Carbon density (Mg/ha)
Cameroon
Gabon
Congo
RDC
0
200
400
600
800
-1200
-1000
-800
-600
-400
-200
Below ground Above ground
Cameroon
Gabon
Congo
RDC
0
200
400
600
800
-1200
-1000
-800
-600
-400
-200
Below ground Above ground
Cameroon
Gabon
Congo
RDC
0
200
400
600
800
-1200
-1000
-800
-600
-400
-200
Below ground Above ground
Comparisonwith adjacent Central
African Rainforests of the Congo Basin
Ecosystem carbon storage reported in the
mangroves of Central Africa is among the largest
for any tropical forest in the world (IPCC, 2007). Our
results were compared with some of the reported
carbon stocks of the terrestrial rainforest of Congo
basin (Figure 5). For consistency, we have only
utilized above ground biomass; as most of the
studies in terrestrial forests lacked below ground
carbon stocks. Above ground carbon pools were
209 Tonnes C/ha in the Dja Biosphere Reserve
(Djuikouo et al., 2011), 188 Tonnes C/ha in Campo
Ma’an National Park (Kanmegne, 2004), and 178.5
Tonnes C/ha in Korup National Park (Chuyong,
unpublished data); all in Cameroon. From the
abovedata, theaverageabovegroundcarbonpool
for undisturbed rainforest in Central Africa was 192
Tonnes C/ha. The average above ground carbon
pool for mangrove forests was 247Tonnes C/ha.
Figure 5: Above ground carbon stocks of
selected terrestrial rainforest in Congo basin
and the mangroves sampled in this study.
Table 8: Total ecosystem carbon stocks, partitioning and carbon dioxide equivalent of Central Africa
mangroves under different disturbance regimes
0
70
140
210
280
MgC/ha
Dja Biosphere
Reserve
Korup National
park
Average mangroves of
central Africa