An assessment of peat forest disturbances and their drivers in the Cuvette Centrale, Africa

Presented by Karimon Nesha at 26th IUFRO World Congress, Stockholm on 23-29 June 2024

1. An assessment of peat forest disturbances and their drivers in the
Cuvette Centrale, Africa
Tropical Peatland Forest Conservation and Sustainability: Challenges and Opportunities
The 26th IUFRO World Congress
Stockholm 2024
Karimon Nesha, Martin Herod, Johannes Reiche, Robert Masolele, Kristel Hergoualc’h,
Erin Swails, Daniel Murdiyarso, Corneille E. N. Ewango
Under review in the journal of Environmental Research Letters

2. Specific Objectives:
1.What are the spatial and temporal patterns of peat forest disturbances?
2.What are the direct drivers of peat forest disturbances and how do they vary in
space and time?
3.How does accessibility and protection status affect the distribution of
disturbances?
Objectives
Overall Aim:
Assess recent peat forest disturbances and related direct drivers in Cuvette
Centrale, spanning DRC and ROC from 2019 to 2021 using multiple earth
observation data

3. ▪Peatlands extent: Gumbricht et al. (2017)
peatmap (Gumbricht) and Crezee et al. (2022)
peatmap
▪Combined peat forest maps
▪Spatio-temporal distribution of peat disturbances
▪Intensity of disturbances: ratio between peat
forest disturbance and peat forest in 1x 1 km grid
▪Driver analysis of peat disturbances:
•events based: connected peat forest
disturbance pixels as an individual event
•randomly sampled 2267 alert events
•visual interpretation of drivers from monthly
Planet and Sentinel-2 images
Data and Methods

4. •Driver classes: namely smallholder agriculture, small-scale logging, flood, roads, and
settlements
•Examples of the direct drivers of peat forest disturbances in the Cuvette Centrale.
Data and Methods

5. Spatial distribution of peat disturbances
in Cuvette Centrale from 2019 to 2021
▪Disturbances encompassed an area of
30,294 ha
▪Most areas (21,049 ha ) encountered
medium-intensity disturbances (2% to 20%
disturbances in 1 km x 1 km grid).
▪Spatial hotspots were relatively less
common, covering an area of 2,831 ha
▪Around 91% of the total 30,294 ha were
concentrated in DRC
▪A substantial portion of spatial hotspots
occurred in the northwest region in DRC,
particularly in the Sud-Ubangi district
Results

6. Direct drivers of peat disturbances in
Cuvette Centrale from 2019 to 2021
▪Smallholder agriculture - most prevalent,
accounting for over 88% of the 2,267
sampled events,
▪Followed by logging at ~7%
▪Flood events –mainly along the Congo
River
▪Peat forests were relatively undisturbed in
ROC and most of the disturbances were low
intensity disturbances
Results

7. Temporal distribution of peat
disturbances in Cuvette Centrale from
2019 to 2021
▪A consistent intra-annual pattern,
predominantly occurring during the first half
of the year
▪Temporal hotspots emerging between
February and May
▪This trend was primarily linked to
smallholder agriculture
▪Logging events were also concentrated
during the first half of the year
▪Flood events concentrated specifically from
October to December in 2019
Results

8. Drivers of peat forest disturbances by country
▪Main driver of peat
disturbances was agriculture
events both in DRC and ROC
▪Around 90% of events were
agriculture in DRC. The
corresponding figure for ROC
was ~77%
▪ROC had comparatively a
higher number of logging
events (~ one-fifth).
▪Flood events were primarily
located along the Congo River,
mainly in DRC
Drivers ROC DRC
Number
of
events
Events
area
(ha)
Area
(%)
relative
to
events
in ROC
Area
(%)
relative
to
events
in
Cuvette
Centrale
Number
of
events
Events
area
(ha)
Area
(%)
relative
to
events
in DRC
Area
(%)
relative
to
events
in
Cuvette
Centrale
Agriculture 142 80.65 77.01 6.70 1791 979.6 89.12 81.37
Logging 49 18.47 17.64 1.53 177 68.76 6.26 5.71
Flood 5 0.73 0.70 0.06 69 36.53 3.32 3.03
Roads 3 1.42 1.36 0.12 1 0.6 0.05 0.05
Settlements 0 0 0.00 0.00 12 4.29 0.39 0.36
others 3 3.46 3.30 0.29 16 9.38 0.85 0.78
Total 104.73 100.00 8.70 1099.16 100.00 91.30

9. Distribution of disturbances by
accessibility
▪Disturbances were primarily
concentrated along the peat forest
edges
▪Approximately 90% of disturbances took
place within a 1 km distance from the
edges and
▪ 99% of them within a 3 km distance
from the edges
▪around 75% of disturbances occurred
within 5 km distance from the river or
road networks
▪More disturbances were observed along
the road networks compared with river
networks at equivalent distances
Results

10. Concluding remarks
▪Most of the peat forest disturbances in cuvette centrale in DRC, with high significant intensity
disturbances in the northwest region (Sud-Ubangi district).
▪Agriculture was the most prevalent driver of peat disturbances in cuvette centrale, accounting for
88% of the disturbances, followed by logging at ~7%.
▪Both in DRC and ROC, agriculture was main driver of peat disturbances. Around 90% of
disturbances were due to agriculture in DRC while ~ 77% in ROC.
▪A clear pattern of temporality observed in case of agriculture events which mostly occurred in the
first half of the year.
▪Disturbances were primarily concentrated along the peat forest edges, 90% within 1 km.
▪More than three-quarter of disturbances occurred within a 5 km distance from river or road
networks.