A Participatory Assessment of Forest Biodiversity Resources and Level of Threat in Hararge Area, Eastern Ethiopia

Abstract

Ethiopia was endowed with abundant and diversified flora and fauna. Especially, forest ecosystem is one the important habitats which provide as home of variety of life. Thus, wood vegetation that covered almost all of the area is reduced due to miss management, limited awareness of forest value and high population pressure. Particularly, the forest resources of Harari region, eastern and west Hararge zone has been degraded dramatically. The study was conducted in eastern part of Ethiopia in both east and west Hararge zones. The aim of the study was to collect and document threatened forest Biodiversity species found in the study area for conservation priority. Data were collected community based participatory using single visit transect walk, informal interviews of elder community and review other literature. The collected data was summarized by table, percent and figure. A total of 112 forest species were recorded. Out of them 34.8% plant species were highly threatened, 22.3% species near threatened and 42.9% were least threatened plant species. Hence, it is recommended to establish legal basis for the in situ and ex situ conservation sites for the conservation of the priority species. In addition, there is an urgent need to apply biotechnology to propagate some of the priority species and raise public awareness on the value of forest genetic resources.