Central African forests, including those in the Congo Basin, play an essential role at the global level. They help to regulate the global climate, in part through the exchange of gases, which has led to them being designated the planet’s ‘second tropical forest lung’. The carbon stock held in their biomass and peatlands is estimated at 80 billion tons, equivalent to almost 10 years of global carbon dioxide emissions. Central Africa’s undisturbed forests now sequester more carbon than those in the Amazon (Dalimier et al. unpublished) and South-East Asia, and currently constitute the world’s largest tropical carbon sink. According to recent estimates by Global Forest Watch (GFW) researchers, forests in the Congo Basin sequester 600 million tons of CO2 more than they emit annually. On average, these forests emit 530 million tons of carbon each year – a figure that has remained stable – and remove 1.1 billion tons.
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Publication year
2022
Authors
Eba’a Atyi, R.; Tchuente, V.; Pokem, D.
Language
English
Keywords
carbon sinks, aboveground biomass, climate change, emissions, tropical forests
