Abstract:
The deliberate maintenance of woody plant species in traditional agroforestry systems could
partly compensate the high rate of deforestation in terms of conserving woody plant diversity.
However, there were no more studies about traditional agroforestry in the study area. Thus,
this research aimed at characterizing the traditional agroforestry practices (AFPs) and
evaluates their role in the Conservation of Woody Plant Species Diversity in Tegedie District,
Amhara Region, Northwest Ethiopia. For this study, the data were collected from six Kebeles.
The number of sampled Kebeles in each Agro-ecology Zone and sampled household heads in
each sampled Kebele was calculated with proportional probability to size formula. Gulqua
from Dega Agro-ecology Zone, Wokro and Sarna from Woina-dega Agro-ecology Zone and
Burie, Soroka and Ergoye from Kolla Agro-ecology Zone of the study area were selected with
simple random technique through lottery method. The sampled household heads and farm
lands were also selected through simple random sampling method. Totally, 195 household
heads were selected. All woody plant species existing in the land use were surveyed and
analyzed. The result revealed that, scatter trees on cropland, homegarden, live fence,
woodlot, trees on bund, shifting cultivation, trees on rangeland and multilayer tree garden
were traditional AFPs, which were harboring 66 woody plant species belonging to 30
families. Scatter trees on cropland was the most common traditional AFP. It showed highest
woody plant diversity. On the other hand, trees on rangeland had highest even distribution of
woody plant species. The common silvicultural tending operations were: pollarding,
coppicing, lopping, watering, grafting, cultivating, fertilizer application mainly manures and
fencing. But there was problem of thinning, pruning and mulching silvicultural tending
operations. The study suggests that traditional AFPs are important for conservation of
indigenous woody plant species in the study area. Therefore, expansion of traditional AFPs
with appropriate use strategies of them is required to conserve woody plant species in
sustainable way.
