Diversity of Woody Plant Species of Gamuwa and Oda Forests of Humbo Carbon Project, Wolaita, Ethiopia: For Conservation and Management of Forests

Abstract

This study was conducted in the Community Managed Forests of Gamuwa and Oda of Carbon Project of Humbo, Wolaita, Ethiopia. The objective of the study was to explore diversity of woody species for conservation and management of the forests. A total of 64 (20 m × 20 m) quadrats were sampled to gather data of species cover abundance, altitude, aspect, and slope. Vegetation clustering was performed from cover abundance using XLSTAT version 2015.2.03 software package. Similarity coefficient was computed using number of species that existed in each community and had been common to them. Diversity indices were computed from number of individuals of each species using Multivariate Variate Statistical Package (MVSP) version 3.1. The General Linear Model (GLM) analysis confirmed the presence of significant difference ( p value = 0.001) of species distribution, altitude, and slope among the quadrates of the three community types. However, except aspect in community 3 ( p value = 0.005) slope, aspect, land cover, and altitude insignificantly affected the distribution of species in communities. Therefore, a priori management and conservation should be given for families with only one species, community with high dominance ( D ′ ), and the area with less land cover.