Author:

Keywords:

carbon stocks, land cover

Abstract:

Reducing land use based carbon emissions is an essential part of proposed climate change mitigation strategies in the ongoing climate debate. In order to achieve effective monitoring of the carbon that is stored in all parts of the landscape, detailed estimations of actual and historic carbon stocks must be performed across the major land use types. A field study in Rwanda was set up to survey the major landscapes and land use types, and to collect data on carbon stocks in biomass and soil. High resolution satellite imagery and background maps of land cover, topography and soils were the basic input for a preceding stratification of the landscape. First, additional observations of land cover were made along transects throughout Rwanda, to characterize the landscapes in terms of areal proportions of vegetative cover. Sample plots for carbon inventorying were laid out across the different land cover classes, to test a field protocol for the measurement and estimation of above-ground and below-ground carbon stocks. Measurements of tree height, tree diame-ter, canopy closure and basal area of woody species were used to estimate volumes of above-ground biomass. Soil samples were analyzed to determine the soil organic carbon content of the topsoil. An overview of the preliminary results and the remaining methodological obstacles will be presented, to draw conclusions for the further improvement of the measurement protocol and the sampling design.