Carbon recovery in secondary forests: Insights from three West African countries

Despite the potential of secondary tropical forests to store and sequester substantial amounts of carbon, little is known about their above-ground carbon (AGC) stocks and the factors affecting them, especially in West Africa. This information is of key importance if the countries in this region want to achieve their forest restoration and climate mitigation commitments. To fill in this gap, we investigated how environmental and local management (e.g. remnant trees) factors influenced AGC and tree species richness in secondary forests at seven sites across Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. We established 140 plots (20 x 50 m) in fallows <15 years (20 plots per site) and sampled all trees ≥10 cm diameter following standardised protocols. We found that AGC stocks and tree species richness increased with fallow age, but were highly variable across sites driven by both climatic and local management practices. While drought stress negatively affected AGC, remnant trees had a positive effect. AGC recovery rates ranged between 0.72 Mg C ha⁻¹ y⁻¹ (second driest site) and 13.76 Mg C ha⁻¹ y⁻¹ (wettest site). Given its low cost, our findings highlight the potential of passive restoration in secondary forests for carbon sequestration, particularly in wetter landscapes and areas with remnant trees from prior land use.