Current status and Future Prospect of Olea europaea and Juniperu procera on Desa’a Afro Alpine forest, North Ethiopia

Abstract

Desa’a forest is a remnant forest on northern Ethiopia, Tigray.  Although the forest has supposed to be protected area, it could not be free from illegal cutting and grazing, resulting reduction of forest cover and biodiversity loss. Olea & Juniperus species were the dominant tree species in the forest area and also the most exploited tree species. Hence, the study was intended to assess the sustainability of the two tree species (Olea europaea & Juniperus procera) in the forest area. Quantitative data (species biomass, rate of tree growth and rate of extraction) generated on non-destructive sample was applied. Allometeric equation and Mean annual Increment (MAI) were applied to estimate biomass and growth rate of woody species in the forest area respectively.

The rate of extraction by households was taken from the main outlets.  Once the data generated, comparative analysis was done between the rate of the species growth and rate of extraction per annum. Accordingly, the woody vegetations O. europaea and J. procera were extracted more than their growing capacity. The mean annual increment (MAI) of O. europaea and J. procera were 3,307.304 and 678.7521 tone/yr respectively. However, the extraction of these two species was 8,227.475 tons/yr and 1,840.440 tons/yr through its main outlets respectively. From this, it was revealed that about 4,920.171 tons/yr (148.7 %) and 1,161.688 tons/yr (171.2 %) of fuel wood was extracted over the MAI of the two species, respectively. This shows there is unsustainable utilization of the two species in Desa’a forest which invite purposive intervention by concerned bodies.

Keywords: Desa’a, fuel wood, sustainability