60th meeting of the Association of Tropical Biology Conference
(ATBC 2024), 13-18 July 2024 | Kigali, Rwanda
Tropical forests have large carbon stocks to mitigate against global warming. However, little is known about their recovery after selective logging. The aim of this study was to determine the carbon stock recovery after selectively logging using pantropical and site-specific allometric equations in the East Region of Cameroon. This study was conducted in six 1-ha permanent monitoring plots established in logged and unlogged forest types. Each 1ha was divided into 25, 20x02m, and the DBH of all trees ≥2cm were measured in 2005/2006 and remeasured in 2011/2012. Only 79% of the initial plants were recensured. The logged forests had the highest %change in the species richness, indicating the impacts of logging. The presence of exploitable trees in both forest types suggests the recruitment into the logged areas. The insignificant difference in the AGB using different allometric equations indicates that the pantropical equation is a good reference for the calculations of AGB in moist tropical forests. The highest AGB (101.3 Mg/ha) and ACS (47.6 Mg/ha) in Triplochyton scleroxylon may be due to its abundance. The 80.7% recovery rate in the logged forests indicates that 30 years is enough for AGB recovery of the leaves, fruits and flowers but not timber, as the unlogged forest had 77.7%. The non-significant alteration in %soil organic carbon indicates that selective logging acts locally, with the %soil organic carbon being highest in the logged sites due to the higher decomposition rates. This calls for reduced-impact logging for sustainable forest management.
Keywords: Above-ground biomass, allometric equations, Carbon stock, logged and unlogged forests
