Abstract

This paper describes the economic value of Protected Areas 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 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 estimates 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. Henceforth, the TEV is about 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.

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