Floristic Biodiversity and Stem Volume of Kambui Forest Reserve, Kenema District, Sierra Leone.

Plant Diversity and Regeneration Potentials in Protected Area Forests of Sierra Leone

“…Each forest displayed a unique dominance in term of species. Our findings were similar with the result of Bendu[58] who recorded Guibouria copallifera(45) as the dominant species in Kasewe forest; Fayiah, et al[63] also recorded Nosogodonia papaverifera and Guibourtia copallifera as the dominant species in Kambui forest eastern Sierra Leone.Similarly, Mattia, et al[64] and Bangura[65] recorded Octhnocosmus africanus and Nosogordonia papaverifera as the dominant species within Moyamba District in Southern Sierra Leone. The absolute dominance of a single species in any given forest showed the attribute of lesser diversity[60,66].…”

“…These values were comparable to previous studies within Sierra Leone and the sub-region. Laurin, et al [56]; Bangura [65] and Fayiah, et al [63] recorded Shannon diversity ranging from 0-3.24 for the plants in forest reserves in the East and South of Sierra Leone. However,…”

“…The plant diversity in the forest PAs in Sierra Leone is generally low as compared to countries with similar vegetation in the subcontinent. This may be attributed to the nature of anthropogenic activities, ecological degradation and climate change [60,63]. Moreover, the changes in soil properties may also significantly affect tree species richness and abundance [12,69].…”