Patrick Muderhwa Mutabesha

Elite tree growth and CO2 assessment in DRC Patrick Muderhwa Mutabesha

As part of the establishment of a carbon sink in Ibi-village, on the Batéké plateau, a trial of provenances on 92 varieties of Acacia mangium, A. auriculiformis and A. crassicarpa was set up in 2007, in order to determine which one would constitute an important carbon sink or accumulate the most biomass in the particular conditions of Ibi. Thus, this research is part of a study of the growth of elite trees of Acacia crassicarpa and evaluation of the amount of carbon sequestered by the average tree in order to determine the best provenances of the elites on arenosols. The study of the elite trees showed that for all the parameters considered the curve tends towards the asymptote between the age of 4.08 and 4.33 years, except for the height where it is reached rather early between the age of 3.08 and 3.83 years and this can be verified by a decrease of the standard deviation. On the other hand, for the best provenances, seven (7) provenances are above the average, for all the parameters considered, in the study area.