Assessment of floristic composition of Ologbo Concession, Edo State, Nigeria, for conservation planning

Abstract

A floristic inventory of woody plants in Ologbo Forest Concession was carried out to characterise the different habitat types within the concession in order to assess its conservation value for land use planning. Three habitat types; swamp, rainforest and fallow land were studied. A total of 630 individual trees representing 71 species in 27 families were enumerated in 15 (25m x 25m) plots of the forest concession. Total number of individual trees were higher in rain forest 327 (51.91%) than in the swamp forest 210 (33.33%) and fallow forest 93 (14.76%). Shannon- Wiener species diversity index H’ was 3.08 for the rainforest, 3.02 for the swamp forest and 2.16 for the fallow forest.

Three IUCN Red Data Listed species (Entrandrophragma sp., Lovoa trihilioides andMillettia sp.) were recorded in the rainforest, two species (Lovoa trichilioides and Millettia sp.) in the swamp forest and none in the fallow forest. All the habitat types contained important fruiting species (Cleistopholis patens, Ficus spp. and Musanga cecropioides) which are of feeding importance for many wildlife species. The study concluded that the floristic value of the concession conservation area had been eroded but some of the biological components could still be salvaged if natural regeneration could be allowed.