Authors
Felix Kalaba, Claire H Quinn, Andrew J Dougill
Publication date
2012/11
Journal
Sustainability Research Institute. Paper
Volume
40
Description
There is increasing awareness of the United Nations Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (UN-REDD) programme in tropical woodland management. This programme aims to increase Carbon (C) storage and conserve biodiversity, linking them to livelihood improvement. The objective of this study was to provide an integrated understanding of aboveground (AG) C storage, structural and floristic composition in charcoal and agriculture fallows in Miombo woodland of Zambia. We conducted ecological surveys; measuring tree diameters and assessing species composition on twenty-four 0.25 ha plots in undisturbed woodlands, and fifty-eight plots re-growing after agriculture (5-58 years) and charcoal production (5-44 years). Undisturbed Miombo stored 39.6 t C ha-1 AG, while after clearance, C stocks accumulated at 0.98 and 1.42 t C ha-1 yr-1 in agriculture and charcoal fallows respectively. There were no significant differences in C stocks between woodlands and≥ 20 year old fallows, implying that in terms of AG C storage, woodlands sufficiently recover after 20 years. Stem densities were significantly higher in charcoal than agriculture fallows but the difference reduced with fallow age. Importance values (IVI) show low presence of less fire resistant tree species such as Uapaca kirkiana Müll. Arg. in the initial regrowth of post agriculture fallows, while higher dominance was observed in charcoal fallows. Shannon diversity indices showed high diversity in both woodlands and fallows though the Jaccard similarity coefficient indicated low species similarities, suggesting that though Miombo recover relatively fast in terms …
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