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Characterization of Faidherbia albida (Del.) A. Chev. population in agroforestry parklands in the highlands of Northern Ethiopia: impact of conservation, environmental factors and human disturbances

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Abstract

Concerns about sustainable management and conservation of multipurpose trees in their habitat have led to increased number of studies on the ecological characterization of their population. Such knowledge on Faidherbia albida, the most used tree in agroforestry parklands in Ethiopia, is limited. F. albida population was characterized in and compared between two agroforests having different conservation status in Northern Ethiopia. Population structural parameters along with environmental factors and human activities were assessed in 42 randomly installed plots using a transect method. Size class distribution was used to describe and analyze the species long-term population dynamics. Adult density was almost three times higher in Zongi agroforest (19.9 ± 2.9 trees ha−1) where the species has been conserved and managed for longer time compared to Abraha-atsbeha agroforest (7.9 ± 2.5 trees ha−1). The same trend was observed for tree morphological parameters which were significantly higher at Zongi than Abraha-atsbeha. However, size class distributions coefficient of skewness and the median diameter indicated a declining and vulnerable population at Zongi and an increasing population at Abraha-atsbeha. Species population characteristics were influenced by environmental factors such as altitude, stone cover, erosion severity, slope, and human-related disturbances including land use, fodder harvesting, distance away from the center of the village and proximity of household to the plots. The study confirms the impact of conservation, environmental factors and human disturbances on shaping F. albida population and recommends the consideration of the trade-offs between them to design effective conservation and management strategies to sustain F. albida agroforests.

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Acknowledgments

Authors would like to thank the Transdisciplinary Training for Resource Efficiency and Climate Change Adaptation in Africa (TRECCAfrica) and Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) for their financial support. We are particularly indebted to the staff of Farmers Training Centre (FTC) of Zongi and Abraha-atsbeha, Ashenafi Hagos and Genet Hadgu for their collaboration and cooperation for the good progress of this work. We are grateful to the anonymous referees for their constructive comments on an earlier version of this manuscript. Our sincere gratitude goes to the farmers’ community of the study agroforests for their help during the field work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Development Research (ZEF), Walter-Flex-Straße 3, 53113, Bonn, Germany

    Florent Noulekoun

  2. Department of Land Resources Management and Environmental Protection, Mekelle University, 231, Mekelle, Ethiopia

    Florent Noulekoun, Emiru Birhane & Stella Chude

  3. Department of Ecology and Natural resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, No-1432 Ås, 5003, Akershus, Norway

    Emiru Birhane

  4. Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria

    Stella Chude

  5. Institute of Climate and Society (ICS), Mekelle University, 231, Mekelle, Ethiopia

    Amanuel Zenebe

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  1. Florent Noulekoun
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Correspondence to Florent Noulekoun.

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Noulekoun, F., Birhane, E., Chude, S. et al. Characterization of Faidherbia albida (Del.) A. Chev. population in agroforestry parklands in the highlands of Northern Ethiopia: impact of conservation, environmental factors and human disturbances. Agroforest Syst 91, 123–135 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-016-9910-6

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