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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unpublished data); all in Cameroon.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