Neil D. Burgess, Paul Harrison, Peter Sumbi, James Laizer, Adam ...

BIODIVERSITY BASELINE: TANZANIA’S COASTAL FORESTS 2011
2.6 Implications for Carbon Emissions
The forest status and change analysis of Godoy et al. (2011) has also been turned into an assessment of
carbon stock and change. The carbon data used was from an African wide map of above ground carbon
developed by Baccini et al. (2008). Carbon content was assumed to be 50 % of dry weight. Average
carbon stock for above- and below-ground biomass was calculated for each district based on the
forested area in 2000. The map of carbon stocks was combined with that of forest-loss data for 1990–
2000 and 2000–2007 to estimate gross carbon emissions during each period. It was assumed that all
carbon content was released into the atmosphere once the vegetation was cleared.
Results (Table 4) show that the greatest CO 2 emissions were in the period 1990-2000, with the greatest
rates in Lindi, followed by Mtwara and Coast regions. In the 2000-2007 period the greatest rate was in
Coast region, with losses reduced in all other Regions. Total carbon emissions per annum from the
coastal forest areas between 1990-2000 were 631,933 tCO 2 per annum, and had declined to 198,154
tCO 2 per annum in the period 2000-2007.
Table 4: Annual emissions among Tanzanian regions – 1990-2000 and 2000-2007 (emission measures
are in tonnes CO 2 per year)
Region
Annual Emission rate tCO 2 yr -1
1990-2000 2000-2007
Dar es Salaam 553 14
Lindi 267,524 56,576
Mtwara 198,132 16,042
Coast 151,151 125,521
Tanga 14,574 0
Total 631,933 198,154
2.7 Matumbi Landscape
Previous biodiversity surveys by WWF and Frontier-Tanzania have revealed that the forest/woodland
mosaic of the Matumbi/Kichi Hills have high species richness, diversity and endemism. These results are
summarised in Clarke and Dickinson (1995), St. John (2007) and Perkin et al. (2008).
Types of trees
There are number valuable trees in landscape, although species like Afzelia quanzensis, Khaya
anthotheca, Milicia excelsa and Pterocarpus angolensis have been depleted through illegal harvesting.
Table 5 outlines the perceived abundance and use of some tree species, as observed by local
communities in 2011.