Carbon pools and multiple benefits

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The results presented below summarize the findings from the surveys conducted in the four target countries: Cameroon, Gabon, RoC, and DRC. Here we present information relevant to setting reference emission levels for REDD+ activities by determining historical deforestation rates in mangroves, providing an analysis of drivers of deforestation and degradation of mangrove ecosystems, estimating values of ecosystem services and presenting carbon stocks, sequestration as well as potential emissions. Having accurate estimates of these metrics can help governments in making the case for the inclusion of mangroves in national REDD+ plans and can allow for improved monitoring, reporting and verifications necessary for REDD+ activities in the region.

degree but not completely deforested and this may not be evident from the satellite images analysed here. Furthermore, the Congo River Basin has extremely high levels of cloud cover, thus making access of cloud-free images for the region difficult. To generate cloud free coverages for the area of interest, images from years preceding and following the study years were acquired, usually 3 in total, and merged together in a process which selected the best quality pixels from all 3 images, again decreasing the accuracy of analysis. Finally, although the satellite images and derived mangrove classifications were validated by an expert in the field, a far greater amount of validation is recommended to increase confidence in the results and improve the accuracy of our analysis. Validation by experts in each country rather than one for the whole region would be highly beneficial. However, even given these caveats, some interesting trends do emerge from the analysis. Deforestation rates are high, with 18% loss between 2000 and 2010 in Cameroon, 35% loss in the RoC, 6% loss in the DRC and 19% loss in Gabon. The overall rate of loss per year for the region is high, 18% over the decade, so 1.8% loss per year. However, along with these fast rates of loss the analysis also found areas of regrowth and resilience, meaning that the overall net loss was relatively insignificant. Cameroon exhibited 0.5% net loss, RoC 2.5%, DRC 1.6%, Gabon 2.7% and the overall region 1.6%. As stated above this net loss does not take into account degradation and thinning of

Mangrove area change (2000 – 2010) and analysis of drivers

Mangrove area change (2000 – 2010)

The following data are presented with some important caveats that must be taken into account when interpreting the results. Firstly, the relatively low 30m spatial resolution Landsat imagery from which the mangrove classifications were derived does not allow for identification of very localized small-scale (<30m) deforested patches common in many mangrove areas. This does not allow us to qualify the quality of the ecosystem in terms of density and height of trees. A forest may have been degraded and thinned to some

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