Ecology and Development Series No. 10, 2003 - ZEF

Floristic analysis of the undisturbed forestet al. 2001). Hence, conservation and sustainable utilization of the forest and coffee geneticresources are currently the management priorities for the forests in the region. Demel et al.(1998) identified three forest areas, namely Yayu (also called Geba-Dogi, after the riversdraining it), Berhane-Kontir and Boginda-Yeba as potential conservation areas for the wildC. arabica populations. These forests were selected based on three criteria: presence ofwild coffee populations, relative accessibility for research and management, and size of theforest area. Yayu forest (which is located between 793870-830490 m E and 923320-934340m N, Zone 36) is the most accessible and the largest of the three areas. However, very littleis known about the forest vegetation of Yayu and the other areas mentioned. Previousstudies of the flora of the southwestern Ethiopia include those of Logan (1946), Chaffey(1979), Friis et al. (1982), Friis (1992) and Kumlachew and Tamrat (2002). Among these,Kumlachew and Tamrat (2002) classified the forest vegetation into communities based onthe analysis of cover abundance of both woody and herbaceous species, and analyzed thedistribution patterns of the plant communities with regard to environmental gradients.However, the scale of their analysis is too broad and not of specific locality to be of any usein management decisions and conservation planning. Other than suggesting the forest as apotential gene reserve, the previous studies by Demel et al. (1998) also did not investigatethe status of the wild coffee population in the forest. However, they suggested severalissues the need further investigation, which diversity of the forest flora and impacts ofhuman use on the forest vegetation. It is known that the forest used by the local people forcoffee production (Tafesse 1996; Demel 1999). The local community has traditionalmanagement systems of the forest to produce coffee. The impact of such human use of theforest on species composition, diversity and vegetation was not investigated before.Addressing such issues is important to develop a concept for conservation and sustainableuse. The aims of this study are, therefore, (1) to analyze the floristic composition andidentify plant community types; (2) to identify indicators for the plant communities, and (3)to assess the distribution patterns of species and plant communities with respect toenvironmental gradients at one specific forest area, the Yayu forest.There is no common understanding on the nature of plant communities amongecologists (Callaway 1997; Looijen and Van Andel 1999) and the debate continues even to36