Dear Dr. Nyirambangutse,

I am pleased to inform you that manuscript ID bg-2016-353 is accepted for publication in Biogeosciences subject to minor revisions. You sufficiently addressed the comments and suggestions of the reviewers in your author responses and indicated how you will consider these in the revised version of the manuscript.

However, I would appreciate it, if you include the suggested references by reviewer 1 in the discussion to give an overview of existing studies on forest structure and above and below-ground biomass in these poorly studied and endangered ecosystem. As you refer in the introduction to tropical montane forests (TMF) at elevations >1000 m a.s.l. you should keep this limitation by altitude also in the discussion.

Best regards,
Jochen Schöngart

Dear Brigitte Nyirambangutse,

your revised version of bg-2016-353 sufficiently addresses the comments and suggestions of the two reviewers and the Associate Editor as you indicated in the detailed author’s response. The highlighted changes in the manuscript substantially improved the quality and presentation of your study.

Therefore I consider bg-2016-353 for publication in Biogeosciences after a small technical correction:
Table 6: add “Amazonia” after C & E in the header of the column.

Thank you for choosing Biogeosciences for publication of this interesting study on forest dynamics of Afromontane forests

Best regards
Jochen Schöngart