Plant diversity and carbon stock in sacred groves of semi-arid areas of Cameroon: case study of Mandara Mountains

Authors

  • VA Kemeuze Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), (Messa)Yaounde
  • PM Mapongmetsem Department of Biological Sciences, University of Ngaoundere, Ngaoundere
  • DJ Sonwa Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), (Messa)Yaounde
  • E Fongnzossie Department of plant biology, University of Yaounde 1, Yaounde
  • BA Nkongmeneck Higher Teacher’s Training School, The University of Douala, Douala

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3126/ije.v4i2.12659

Keywords:

Sacred groves, Mandara Mountain, biodiversity, climate change, desertification

Abstract

The Mandara Mountain eco-region is one of the most important mountain areas of Cameroon. It is often considered as a refuge for several plant and wildlife species. This area is fragile and vulnerable, and faces severe threats from land use change, unsustainable exploitation of natural resources, desertification and climate change. Recent studies in sacred groves portrayed these land use types as indigenous strategies which can help to address these environmental problems. Understanding the plant diversity and carbon storage of these land use types in Mandara Mountain can be a good step towards their sustainable management for the delivery of diverse ecosystem services. In this perspective, we established a total of 10 nested circular plots of 1257 m2 each, in the sacred grove of the Mouhour village in Mandara Mountain, and all trees and shrubs with average diameter at breast height (dbh) ≥ 2.5 cm were counted. Tree biomass was estimated on the basis of DBH and understory biomass using destructive method. A total of 182 woody plants were measured, belonging to 21 species, 18 genera and 12 families. The richest family is Combretaceae with 5 species, followed by Caesalpiniaceae and Mimosaceae (3 species each). The analysis of species diversity indexes shows a relative important biodiversity and the vegetation structure showed a high occurrence of small-diameter of plant species. Mean aboveground carbon stock of 31.13 ± 10.8 tC/ha was obtained in the study area. Isoberlinia doka showed the greatest carbon stock (5.7 tC/ha) followed by Boswellia dalzielii (3.9 tC/ha), Acacia senegal (3.5 tC/ha), Anogeissus leiocarpus (3.3 tC/ha) and Terminalia laxiflora (3.1 tC/ha). These results suggest that the sacred groves of Cameroon dry lands need to be taken into account in national environment protection policies as an alternative to respond to international agreements related to biodiversity conservation, combatting desertification and climate change.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ije.v4i2.12659

International Journal of Environment Vol.4(2) 2015: 308-318

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.
Abstract
1199
PDF
900

Downloads

Published

2015-06-03

How to Cite

Kemeuze, V., Mapongmetsem, P., Sonwa, D., Fongnzossie, E., & Nkongmeneck, B. (2015). Plant diversity and carbon stock in sacred groves of semi-arid areas of Cameroon: case study of Mandara Mountains. International Journal of Environment, 4(2), 308–318. https://doi.org/10.3126/ije.v4i2.12659

Issue

Vol. 4 No. 2 (2015)

Section

Research Papers

License

The author(s) acknowledge that the manuscript submitted is his/her/their own original work; all authors participated in the work in a substantive way and are prepared to take public responsibility for the work; all authors have seen and approved the manuscript as submitted;  the manuscript has not been published and is not being submitted or considered for publication elsewhere; the text, illustrations, and any other materials included in the manuscript do not infringe(plagiarism) upon any existing copyright or other rights of anyone.

Notwithstanding the above, the Contributor(s) or, if applicable the Contributor’s Employer, retain(s) all proprietary rights other than copyright, such as Patent rights; to use, free of charge, all parts of this article for the author’s future works in books, lectures, classroom teaching or oral presentations; the right to reproduce the article for their own purposes provided the copies are not offered for sale.

The copyright to the contribution identified is transferred to IJE.