Mapping/assessing carbon stocks in the perspective of Payment for Environmental Services (PES) for rural communities in East Cameroon

Rural Africa plays an important role in the stabilization of the world’s climate. Given that greenhouse gases are emitted from different sources and places, they accumulate over time and mix globally. Climate change can then be effectively tackled if collective actions are taken at global level. Though most decisions are taken by international conservation organizations, the implimetations are done at rural levels by local and indegenous communities who direclty depend on forest products. Reason why carbon stocks assessment at the MPEMOG Community Forest was done in order to establish a reference level for emission-reduction in the perspective of Payment for Environmental Services (PES) using the Chave et al. (2014) non-destructive allometric equation. From analysis of variance, carbon stock varied from 53.48±36.17 Ct/ha to 218.29±308.38 Ct/ha in Mixed cropland and Primary forest respectively equally the conversion of Primary Forest to Mixed cropland leads to the highest carbon loss (166.24 Ct/ha) and Cocoa plantations generate both economic and ecological values and contribute significantly to food security. The study concludes that the variation in carbon stocks depends on the degree of human influence and PES is an opportunity to contribute in forest sustainability while improving on the socioeconomic development of forest dependent populations.

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