This document summarizes a presentation on a project studying woody plant diversity and composition in rural landscapes in southwest Ethiopia. The project aims to quantify species richness and composition across different land uses, and identify drivers of species richness. Preliminary findings show that forest plots had higher species richness closer to the forest interior, while farmland plots had similarly high richness across land uses. The proportion of conserved woody vegetation was identified as an important driver of species richness. Recommendations focus on considering landscape mosaics and land use management practices for conservation.

1. Girma Shumi, Jannik Schultner, Jan Hanspach, Patricia Rodrigues, Ine
Dorresteijn, Kristoffer Hylander, Feyera Senbeta and Joern Fischer
Woody plant diversity and composition in
rural landscapes of SW Ethiopia
Email: dugo@leuphana.de 13/27/2017
3rd African Congress for Conservation Biology, El Jadida, Morocco, September 2016

2. Outline of presentation
 Background and aim of the project
 Study area
 Methodology
 Preliminary findings
 Conclusion and recommendations
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Background
 Land sharing vs land sparing
Adapted from Loos et al. 2016
 However, both discourse ignore social and
ecological complexities

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Aim of the project
• To contribute to better understanding
of biodiversity conservation and food
security co-benefits of cultural
landscape.
Specifically,
 Quantify and examine woody plant
species richness and composition;
and
 Identify drivers of species richness in
rural landscapes.

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• Low forest cover, coffee &
agriculture
• Low forest cover and
agriculture
• High forest cover, coffee
and agriculture
• Afromontane rainforest
• Eastern Afromontane Biodiversity Hotspot
Study area

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 150 randomly selected sample points
 20*20m plot in forest & homegarden , and
 1ha circular site/plot for farm and grazing land
Methodology
Sampling:-
Data collected/field work
 Recorded all trees and shrubs species with height ≥ 1.5m;
 Measured DBH of trees & shrub species with DBH ≥ 5 cm;
 Collected specimen for species identification;
15-Maize,
25- Teff and
13- others

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• Rapid eye image 2015
 Current distance of sample points from forest (dist15)
 Cost distance
 Proportion woody vegetation cover in 1ha site
(PropFC56m) and in context (PropFC200m & PropFC300)
Analysis of satellite image:
Methodology
Data analysis
1. Multivariate analysis (NMDS)
2. Regression analysis

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Preliminary findings
96
12- Close forest
3-middle forest
1- far forest
6- Extreme forest
Farmland-39
Grazing-6Home-garden
21
54
2
Forest land useArable mosaic land use

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• Forest -species composition
and distribution
Preliminary findings
Stress: 0.2214659

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Preliminary findings
• Farmland -species
composition and distribution
Stress: 0.2462757

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Preliminary findings
Characteristics
Close
forest
Middle
forest
Far
forest
Extreme
forest
Total plots 18 11 12 26
Mean species
Richness 13 18 19 20
Total abundance 4958 3600 2941 5196
Mean abundance 275 327 245 209
Mean species richness and abundance by forest class

12. Characteristics Grazing Maize Teff Others
Total plots 19 15 25 13
Mean species richness 15 18 16 19
Total abundance 9832 11206 11392 7664
Mean abundance 517 747 456 590
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Mean species richness and abundance by land use
in farmland and grazing lands
Preliminary findings

13. Characteristics Grazing Maize Teff Others
Total plots 19 15 25 13
Mean species richness 15 18 16 19
Total abundance 9832 11206 11392 7664
Mean abundance 517 747 456 590
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Mean species richness and abundance by land use
in farmland and grazing lands
Preliminary findings

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Conclusion and recommendations
1. In forest, woody plant species richness and composition differed from edge
to interior of forest:-
 Coffee management
 Cost distance- easy access and forest utilization or the reverse
- Edge effect
2. In farmland, species richness was similarly high and did not differ within
the arable mosaic (farmland, grazing land and home-gardens) land use:-
 The proportion of conserved woody vegetation within arable land
and its context
3. From these results, considering land use management practice but not only
land use type in entire landscape mosaic – should be of paramount
importance in future conservation initiatives.

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ERC- granting project fund to Joern Fischer
Field workers and guards for data collection
Acknowledgement

16. Thank you for your attention!
Girma Shumi Dugo
Faculty of Sustainability Science,
Leuphana Universität Lüneburg
Scharnhorststraße 1
21335 Lüneburg
Email:- dugo@leuphana.de
Tel: +49 4131 677 7662
Mobile: +49 152 10471044
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