PARENT SESSION
Oral Session #69: Conservation: Biodiversity assessment and reserve design.
Presiding: T. Norton
Wednesday, August 7. 1:00 PM to 4:45 PM. Grand Ballroom Central, Radisson.

Biophysical criteria for reserve design: the case of coffee gene reserve zoning in Ethiopia.

Gole, Tadesse^*,1, Denich, Manfred¹, Borsch, Thomas², Teketay, Demel³, Vlek, Paul¹, Barthlott, Wilhelm², ¹ Center for Development Research, Division of Ecology and Natural Resources Management, Bonn, Germany² Botanical Institute, Bonn, Germany³ Ethiopian Agricultural Research Organisation, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

ABSTRACT- The Ethiopian highlands are the centers of origin for Coffea arabica, where it is a major element of the shrub layer species in the mountain rainforest plant community. The forests in these regions are threatened by ongoing deforestation and conversion to other land-use types. In situ conservation of the wild coffee gene pool is of top priority in the management objectives of these forests. As a first step to achieve this objective, an inventory was conducted in a mountain rainforest of Oromia state, southwestern Ethiopia, with the aim of characterising the floristics of the forest, and identify important areas for conservation and use of the wild C. arabica populations. Quantitative vegetation and environmental data were collected from 58 plots of 20 m x 20 m area. The study plots were classified into different plant community groups. The relationship between environmental variables and plant species distribution was established. From this, patterns of distribution of coffee population and some major canopy trees were predicted for the whole forest landscape of the study area. Multiple criteria based on vegetation data and environmental parameters were used in the GIS environment to zone the forest in to different management units (transition, buffer and core zones) and mapped. Vegetation analysis proved to be useful to proritize important conservation sites. A series of conservation and development activities are proposed in resepectives zones of the planned reserve.

KEY WORDS: Coffea arabica, Oromia, mountain rainforest, genetic conservation, in situ