Potential and Determinants of Carbon Storage of Freshwater Swamp Forests

There has been an increase in carbon assessments across global ecosystems, but some ecosystem types remain woefully understudied, and freshwater swamp forests are one such ecosystem. Located between the mangrove swamp forest and the lowland forest ecosystems, freshwater swamp forest provides a corridor for the migration of flora and fauna between these ecosystems as well as being floristically unique. Swamp forests contribute to the provision of ecosystem services, are potential stores of carbon and important for climate regulation and biogeochemical cycling. However, this ecosystem has been steadily exploited, its extent has reduced, been degraded and is now confined to small pockets. As a result, its species like in most other old growth forests across the tropics, are not only threatened and fragmented, but the ecosystem services they provide are reduced. These changes have impacted the forest landscape adversely and reduced the former extensive ecosystem into mosaics of forest islands.

Since the use of the ecosystem are dependent on the management and ownership statuses of the forest lands, understanding the linkages between the management of the ecosystem and the services they provide is crucial to maximize ecosystem service potentials. We focus on highlighting the impact of forest use on the composition and the carbon storage capacities of the ecosystem; so as to better inform and promote the ecosystem’s conservation and its carbon potentials.

The capacity to which freshwater swamp forests across the region stored carbon seems to be on the decline following forest modification across most of the landscapes. This has become more acute because, the forests’ management and viability are dependent on individuals who mostly depend on the forests for sources of livelihood and barely consider issues of forest conservation.  This study found forest ownership and utilization can affect forest composition and its capacity to provide vital ecosystem services such as carbon storage. It is suggested that awareness of sustainable forest management techniques need to be advocated across both family owned and communally owned forests—in order to ensure that their carbon storage capacities are not hampered.

Article by Nwabueze I. Igu, Rob Marchant, from University of York, UK.

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