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highlight where areas of importance for carbon and biodiversity benefits may in the future be
under pressure from deforestation, and thus where reducing deforestation is most
appropriate.
Potential for biodiversity benefits and the role of protected areas
The DRC is a signatory to the Kinshasa Declaration on Great Apes and has thus agreed to
undertake all necessary efforts to ensure the long-term future of the species of great apes within
its boundaries (UNEP
et al.
, 2005). To explore the potential for biodiversity benefits from REDD+,
the ranges of occurrence
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of three endangered great apes, eastern gorilla, common chimpanzee
and bonobo (Caldecott and Miles, 2005) were combined with the preliminary biomass carbon
map). In order to broaden the taxonomic scope, data on Important Bird Areas (IBAs, BirdLife
International, 2011) were also included.
The ranges of occurrence of the great apes jointly cover almost the entire forest area of the
country and include more than 70% of its biomass carbon. The largest amount of biomass carbon
is within the occurrence range of the common chimpanzee (almost 11 Gt), which also covers the
largest area. IBAs overlap with all three species’ occurrence ranges in different places.
On 780 000 hectares of land, gorillas co-occur with common chimpanzees inside land that is also
considered important for birds (IBAs). These areas are potentially of major importance for
biodiversity conservation because of their importance for different taxonomic groups.
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The ‘ranges of occurrence’ are the areas within which the species can occur, but there may have been
substantial population declines in some parts of them, for example due to outbreaks of the Ebola virus
and to the impacts of armed conflict (especially in the case of the eastern gorilla, Nellemann
et al.
,
2010). Therefore, the ‘areas of occupancy’, i.e. the areas where the species are actually found, are
likely to be much smaller than their ranges of occurrence.