Wild Plant Use by Local Communities Within the "Kwakuchinja" Wildlife Corridor in Tarangiremanyara Ecosystem, Tanzania

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Date

2005-07

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Addis Ababa Universty

Abstract

The study was undertaken to investigate the utilization of wild plants by local communities along the Kwakuchinja wildlife corridor in Tarangire-Manyara ecosystem, Tanzania. To accomplish this, an ethno-botanical survey was carried out in the two villages found within the corridor, Minjingu and Vilima Vitatu. The surveys involved an assessment of plant use, prefen'ed species and their availability. This was combined with vegetation study. Ecological stand parameters inside and outside the National Park were compared and related to the level of exploitation. This was done with special observation on the mentioned useful plants encountered in the field. Data analysis was aided by Computer Programs and Statistical packages including INSTAT, Microsoft excel and SPSS VI1. The vegetation study revealed that the wood component in the study area was dominated by the genera Acacia, with highest abundance of Acacia tortilis and Acacia kirkii, while the field layer was predominantly Dacty/octellilllll aegyptilllll and Thellleda trialldra. These were interspersed with a tree/shrub layer of Maerlla triphylla among others. During ethnobotanical survey, 64 useful plant species were mentioned out of which only 24 were encountered in vegetation survey. The uses were altogether classified into eight categories and major uses were medicinal, constlUction, firewood and food. As expected, there was a clear pattern of species diversity following the level of disturbance, whereby plots closest to settlements, hence highest disturbance, had lowest diversity index and those relatively at a distance, with intelmediate disturbance had comparatively the highest diversity. This pattern aligns with the Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis, which states that diversity will be highest at sites that have had an intermediate frequency of disturbance and will be lower at sites that have experienced very high or velY low disturbance frequencies.

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Kwakuchinja

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