Managed forests support higher carbon density and sequestration in the Congo basin

Land-use drives forest loss and carbon emissions in the Congo basin, undermining its role in climate change mitigation. Here, we assess how aboveground live carbon (AGC) stocks and fluxes vary across land-use in the Congo basin rainforests by developing AGC density map for the year 2020 and integrating it with high-resolution forest cover loss data over 30 years (1990–2020) to estimate carbon emissions and removals. Our findings reveal higher forest integrity under managed disturbances, with logged forests having 7.53% (range: 4.86%–9.5%) less AGC compared to old growth, unlike 50% differences observed with slash-and-burn and other unmanaged disturbances. Unmanaged areas hold 50% of the AGC storage, implying that much of the basin remains highly vulnerable to rapid carbon loss from unmanaged land-use. Overall, the basin remained a net AGC sink of -37.5 ± 4.29 Tg C yr ^− 1 , dominated my 98% removals from managed and intact forests within logging concessions (21.3 ± 2.39 Tg C yr ^− 1 ) and protected areas (15.73 ± 2.24 Tg C yr ^− 1 ), while unmanaged forests nearly remained carbon neutral. These findings underscore the critical need to integrate sustainable management strategies for unmanaged forests into climate mitigation frameworks such as REDD + to enhance carbon retention in the Congo basin.