Abstract

Oke DO and Jamala GY

Agroforestry practices are known to contribute to food security, environmental protection and biodiversity conservation. To determine the extent of contribution of some traditional agroforestry practices to woody species conservation, data were collected from the natural fallow land, grazing land and natural forest in, and around the Gumti sector of Gashaka-Gumti National Park, covering Toungo and Jada local government areas of Adamawa State, Nigeria. The area was sampled in a group of twelve 0.04 ha (20 m × 20 m) plots per land use type. All woody plants with diameter at breast height greater than or equal to 5 cm were identified. A total of 0.48 ha of natural fallow, grazing land and natural forest were surveyed. A total of 361 individuals belonging to 28 species and 18 families were identified in the 0.48 ha of natural forest surveyed. In the natural fallow, 314 individuals belonging to 32 species in 17 families were encountered while the grazing land had 211 individuals belonging to 24 species in 15 families. The natural forest had the highest density of woody species (752.08 plants/Ha) while the lowest (439.58 plants/Ha) was observed on the grazing land. The values Shannons diversity index differ significantly among the land use types with the natural forest having the highest (0.85), while the grazing land had the least (0.56). The rare faction curves, however indicated that the grazing land had the highest species richness relative to the total number of individuals encountered.