Vegetation Survey, Classification and Mapping in Angola

Abstract

Spatial information about plant species composition and the distribution of vegetation types is an essential baseline for natural resource management planning. In Angola, the first countrywide vegetation map was elaborated by Gossweiler in 1939. Subsequently, Barbosa published a revised map with much higher detail in 1970 and his work has remained the main reference for the vegetation of Angola until today. However, these early maps were expert drawn and were not based on systematic surveys. Instead, the delimitation of vegetation units was based on many years of field observations and also incorporated results of local studies carried out by other authors. In spite the rich history of the scientific exploration of Angola's vegetation in colonial times, quantitative and plot based studies were rare. After the end of the armed conflict, new vegetation surveys making use of new methodological developments in numerical approaches to vegetation classification in combination with modern remote sensing imagery have provided spatial information of unprecedented detail. However, vast areas of the country still remain seriously understudied. At the same time, sustainable land management strategies are urgently needed due to the increasing pressure on natural resources driven by socio-economic development and global change, thus calling for a new era of vegetation surveys that will enable data-based landuse and conservation planning in Angola.

Medicinal plants used by ‘root doctors’, local traditional healers in Bié province, Angola

“…Angolan Herbal Pharmacopeia is still missing (Queza, 2010) and the general regulations for a National Pharmaceutical Policy (Presidential Decree n. 180/2010) establish the need to promote the elaboration of a pharmacopoeia of traditional medicines. It is therefore urgent to conduct ethnobotanical studies in biologically and culturally diverse regions of Angola, to at least get an idea of the relative importance of still existing knowledge, which is threatened by still increasing pressure on vegetation driven by socioeconomic development and global change (Revermann and Finckh, 2019). These studies are also essential to evaluate the diversity of medicinal species in this country, allowing comparisons with other regions and with the overall African continent, where about 10% of the flora is estimated to be used in traditional medicine (Van Wyk, 2011).…”

Biodiversity and Ethnobotany of Medicinal Plants of the Small Songo City, Angola

“…Angola's plant pharmacopeia is still lacking information [24]. There is therefore an urgent need for ethnobotanical studies in the biologically and culturally diverse regions of Angola, in order to get at least an idea of the relative importance of existing traditional knowledge, which is threatened by increasing pressure on vegetation due to socio-economic development and global change [25]. These studies are also essential to evaluate the diversity of medicinal species in our country, allowing comparison with other continents and with the African continent as a whole, in which it is estimated that about 10% of its flora is used in traditional medicine [26].…”

Use of Phytosociology and Remote Sensing to Classify and Map the Vegetation in Protected Areas, Botswana

“…During the era of climate change, phytosociological studies are more crucial and necessary in the conservation of plant communities as well as in understanding the past and future changes occurring to these plant communities since in most cases, only vegetation data are accessible for comparisons [1,6]. Computer technology has allowed the improvement of new methods to semi-automatically classify big datasets of vegetation and this has removed vegetation classification from just assigning the vegetation types to more organized data analysis [7]. Plant ecologists had generally agreed that the vegetation consisted of natural plant communities, which can be recognized as distinct formations with real boundaries [8].…”

“…Plant ecologists had generally agreed that the vegetation consisted of natural plant communities, which can be recognized as distinct formations with real boundaries [8]. Modern remote sensing products are likely to offer much more thorough arrangements of plant diversity than maps drawn by experts that subjectively assigned vegetation types in the olden days [7].…”

“…Field-based sampling using phytosociological methods for monitoring the vegetation in these remote areas is logistically challenging, costly, labor-intensive, and time consuming [11,12]. In contrast, remote sensing monitoring is cheap, requires less labor, and is more objective than field-based methods, and it allows mapping of the vegetation in the remote areas to be efficient, effective, and economical [7,11,12]. Remote sensing in savanna landscapes is complicated because the landscapes are heterogeneous and there is a likelihood of spectral confusion between a shrub and a tree [13].…”