Abstract:
Managing unfenced protected areas (PAs) to preserve biodiversity and ecosystem
services presents challenges in the face of climate change and habitat disturbance.
This often forces wildlife to seek adaptation in other PAs or unprotected areas.
Consequently, there is a need to include these adapted areas in the PA network.
While PAs include national parks, game reserves, forest reserves, and wildlife
management areas (WMAs), unprotected areas (unPAs) comprise wildlife corridors
and dispersal areas that connect multiple PAs. However, residents residing near or
within unPAs, particularly in developing countries, unsustainably exploit flora and
fauna resources for their livelihoods. This paper focuses on the lesser-known
aspect of biomass loss and carbon emissions resulting from habitat conversion in
the Ruaha-Rungwa ecosystem (RRE) in Tanzania. The study estimates the annual
biomass loss, carbon emissions, and conservation profit resulting from habitat
conversion between 1990 and 2020. Spatial and temporal changes in land use and
land cover data were analyzed to derive the desired results. The results indicate an
average annual biomass loss of 0.97 million tons (above ground + below ground +
deadwood) during the period of 1990-2020. Additionally, there were average
annual carbon emissions of 0.46 million tons (above ground + below ground +
deadwood), equivalent to a potential carbon sell revenue of US$1.84 million per
year. The conservation profit from the area has the potential to counterbalance
the detrimental activities of adjacent PA dwellers, provided carbon sell strategies
are adopted. Looking ahead, it is necessary to incorporate adjacent PA areas into
core PAs to safeguard wildlife adaptation to climate change. However, the
government must incur the associated costs to protect these adaptation scenarios
within core PAs. Understanding the biomass loss and carbon emissions resulting
from habitat conversion in the RRE is crucial for developing effective conservation
strategies and promoting sustainable management of PAs in Tanzania
