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Tableau 11. Number of known and threatened species of the DRC by taxonomic group
(1 Ministère de l’Environnement Conservation de la Nature et Tourisme, 2009; 2IUCN, 2011)
Taxonomic group
Number of known species
1
Number of threatened species
2
Reptiles
352
4
Amphibians
168
14
Birds
1086
32
Mammals
421
30
Aquatic vertebrates
1606
5
Vascular plants
> 10 000
83
Biodiversity, i.e. the diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems (CBD, Article 2),
strongly influences the provision of ecosystem services (Díaz
et al.
, 2005; Aveling, 2009). It is a
source of food, timber, fuel, medicine and building material and is crucial for the regulation of
ecosystem services, such as pollination, nutrient cycling and erosion control. In the DRC, the
majority of households rely on forest products for energy, food and income (Eba’a Atyi and Bayol,
2009).
Spatial analyses as a tool to explore the benefits and risks of REDD+ for biodiversity
In the results-based phase of REDD+, payments will be linked to contributions to climate change
mitigation made by forest based actions: Reduced deforestation and forest degradation can help
reduce carbon dioxide emissions, sustainable management of forest and conservation of forest
carbon stocks can help avoid such emissions, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks can help
remove them. When considering the synergies and trade-offs between REDD+ and biodiversity, it
is helpful as a first step to understand the spatial relationship between carbon stocks and areas of
biodiversity importance, as both are distributed unequally across space. This requires an
overview of the spatial distribution of carbon stocks. Field plot data of carbon stored in the
biomass of different vegetation types and from different locations in the DRC would be most
appropriate to use in the generation of such an overview. However, in the absence of such data,
best available regional and global data were used to generate a preliminary biomass carbon map
for the DRC (see Annex I for method and data sources and Annex II for more detail on the
limitations of the data). This preliminary map was then overlaid with spatial data on biodiversity,
protected areas and recent forest cover loss in order to:
•
help illustrate where REDD+ may be able to secure biodiversity benefits in addition to
maintaining carbon stocks;
•
provide an estimate of the contribution of areas designated and proposed for biodiversity
conservation to conserving carbon stocks and assess their relation to other areas of
importance for biodiversity;