Carbon pools and multiple benefits

Table 16: Tourist visits to mangrove sites within Central Africa

Average no of visitors/ month

Area (ha)

Yearly total

Mean visit/ha mangrove/yr

Source of data

Country Site

Visit records kept by Association Nationale de Protection des Tortues Marines du Cameroun « Kud’A Tube »

Ebojie Marine turtle

Cameroon

200

10

120

0.6

Gabon NA

NA NA

NA

NA

NA

Mazra Club Touristique Parc Mangrove

Mazra Club Touristique records Conservation Service of Parc Mangrove Muanda

Congo

100

70

840

8.4

DRC

500

7

84

0.168

Total

800

87

1044

1.305

Tourism

Though there were a scarcity of data on recreation value of mangroves, available information indicate that mangroves of Central Africa are also potential tourisms sites; receiving on average 1,044 visitors per year (Table 16). In the RoC, some 840 visitors were recorded in the Mazra Club Touristique. These relatively low numbers of visitors show thatmangroves are not priority tourism areas for these countries, and that terrestrial ecosystems such as rainforests or other wildlife sanctuaries are bigger attractions. Overall tourism numbers for these countries are not readily available for each country. Furthermore, some countries such as DRC generally do not have highly developed tourism industries due to political and infrastructural challenges. Tourism infrastructure in the mangroves of Central Africa is not yet fully developed and the potential has not yet been fully realized; especially given how globally important these ecosystems are. Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) schemes could explore improving ecotourism opportunities and income in the region. Additional and non-market ecosystem services In addition to the ecosystem services outlined above, mangroves also provide additional services, some of which are non-market values that are more difficult to quantify in terms of dollar value. For themangroves of Central Africa, these include biodiversity and habitat benefits, cultural services (spiritual values, recreational values), services associated with water quality maintenance, and services associated with

cycling of nutrients. Although these are all probably highly valuable to the communities living around the mangroves, they have not been quantified for the purpose of this study due to lack of data or lack of methodologies for measuring them.

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