Checklist and Ethnobotanical Knowledge of Timber Species in Bayelsa State, Nigeria

J Kayode,So Ihinmikaiye,Ayodele Oyedeji,Sunday Arowosegbe

doi:10.36959/948/465

Abstract

An appraisal of the ethnobotanical knowledge of the timber species in Bayelsa State, Nigeria, was carried out with the aid of a semi structured questionnaire guide. Five communities were selected from each of the eight Local Government Areas of the state, making a total of 40 communities used for the study. Ten respondents were randomly selected from each of the community, thus constituting 400 respondents in all, and were interviewed with the questionnaire guide.

Highlights

Forest house an often complex array of resources, including woody and non-woody forest products, utilized by man
This study aimed at assessing and documenting information about existing timber species found within the forest ecosystem of Bayelsa state, determine the ethnobotanical knowledge on them, their abundance status and suggest conservation strategies that could lead to their sustainable supply in the state
A total of 63 timber species belonging to 28 families were identified in the three senatorial zones of the State (Table 2). 59, 54 and 58 timber species were identified in Bayelsa Central (BC), Bayelsa East (BE) and Bayelsa West (BW) respectively

Summary

Introduction

Forest house an often complex array of resources, including woody and non-woody forest products, utilized by man. Inimical exploitation of forest resources, especially timber species, obviously reduced species diversity of the tropical rainforests. The indigenous timber species inherent in the tropical forest are recurrently disappearing from the wild. Previous study of Ihinmikaiye and Okpo [4] revealed that forest communities in the region are rich in tree species, but the distribution skewed with respect to the intermediate class. Obute and Ekiye [5] highlighted the implications of forest fragmentation and over harvesting leading to the depletion of vegetation resource base, and the loss of the knowledge about useful floral species along with their ethnobotanical applications in State. In Ndukwu and Ben-Nwadibia [6] a total of 24 species belonging to 10 different families were found to have varying applications in ethnobotany: The studies indicated that the indigenous

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Conclusion