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Figure 15. Biomass carbon, occurrence ranges of eastern gorilla, common
chimpanzee and bonobo and Important Bird Areas
(data sources: Caldecott and Miles, 2005, BirdLife International, 2011)
A widely established way to conserve forests and biodiversity is the designation of land as
protected areas. By 2009, a total of 40 protected areas had been officially designated in the DRC
while another 17 had been proposed (ICCN
et al.
, 2009, figure 16). The designated protected
areas cover about 10% of the area of the country and contain 2.8 Gt of biomass carbon (i.e. 11%
of the total). The proposed protected areas cover an additional 3% of the country’s total area and
store 0.7 Gt of biomass carbon.