Flora Biodiversity Assessment in Bonga, Boginda and Mankira Forest

3.3.5 Comparison of Forest areas (Bonga, Boginda and Mankira) with
respect to density of flora
a. Forest
All flora recorded (grass, herb, regeneration, saplings of woody plant, shrubs, and trees)
per ha are combined and their density per ha is presented in the Table below (Table 5 &
figure 16 consecutively). Accordingly Bonga forest 1 has the largest plant cover per ha
(estimated to be more than1,309,956). Mankira and Boginda have lower number of floral
density, each comprising 510,120 and 386,600, respectively. The reason for such big
variation could be that average slope inclination of sample plots in Bonga forest fell in
slopes less than 30 percent. Boginda has the steepest gradient and average slope of all
sample plots is estimated as 53 percent. Mankira on the other hand has 36 percent
average gradient of sample plots.
When an area is steep, undergrowth condition might not be as flourishing as gentle slope
or flat area because soil might be washed to gorges and downslopes during rainy season.
Other factor could be that most of the areas are occupied by forest coffee either
intensively or extensively managed or not managed at all. Presence of management of
coffee influences undergrowth condition as most of the undergrowth is cleared to reduce
competition and allow access to human movement.
Table 5. Density of plants per stratum
Forest area
Number of plants per
hectare
Bonga 1309956
Boginda 386600
Mankira 510120
Source: Flora Biodiversity Assessment, 2008
1 See annex I for definitions of forest, shrubs and tree
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