This paper describes the economic value of Protected Areas (PA) in the Congo Basin. It should be noted that the focus is on forest ecosystem values more generally, rather than PA values per se. This is because little or no specific information exists on the value of PAs in the sub-region, whereas data are available which look at the economic benefits associated with natural forests. In effect, the values referred to below therefore indicate the economic benefits that are generated from the conservation and sustainable use of forest biodiversity and ecosystems in the Congo Basin -to which ends which PAs provide an important conservation mechanism. The total economic value (TEV) is applied here as framework used to categorise ecosystem values. Data are coming from the existing literature in order to come up with broad estimates of the economic value of Congo Basin PAs. The main findings of this research estimate rely on different source data and calculation methods, represent a mixture of actual and potential values, and only consider key goods and services, it should be noted that the figures cannot be summed to give a single figure for the total economic value of Congo Basin PAs. As final results, the TEV is around US$ 603,468,014,907 with US$ 13,884,954 for direct use value; US$ 589,532,157,606 for indirect use value and US$ 50,903,301 for option, existence and bequest value. Henceforth, to maintain the sustainability of Congo basin, there is a need to provide adequate financing for protected areas. While precise figures are difficult to obtain, there is unquestionably a high economic and development value to protected area conservation. In many cases this value far exceeds those arising from alternative-and less sustainable-land and resource use options.
Land used for different purposes may be disturbed to differing degrees depending on management practice, application rate and timing in the areas of intensive agriculture as they vary according to soil formation factors such as parent material, topography and climate. Assessing land-use-induced changes in soil properties is essential for addressing the issue of agro-ecosystem transformation and sustainable land productivity. Effective land use, planning and management at local and regional scales are dependent on a sound knowledge of the distribution and variability of suitability land use within the agro-ecological zone.The main objective of this research was to determine the impact of selected land use types and interactions on some soil chemical, physical and biological characteristics such as soil pH, soil organic matter (SOM), bulk density (BD), water stable aggregates (WSA), hydraulic conductivity (HC), soil flora (bacteria, fungi, actnomycete) and microbial biomass nutrients) in surface layers (0-20 cm) of topsoil of land use. The experimental design was a completely randomized block with 3 replications for each land use system .This study was carried out in Juru, Rweru and Gashora sectors in Bugesera district Eastern Province of Rwanda. The study area is traditional potential area for field crops (especially banana, maize and cassava) and for natural land use (shrubs and forest lands).According to ANOVA statistical analysis, different land uses in the study area has significantly affected soil health as follows p<0.01 for SOM, WSA and HC, p<0.05 for BD, p< 0.05 for microbial biomass N and C. Besides, soil texture was significantly detected as p< 0.01
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