Abstract
Diversity of woody and herbaceous species, stand structure and regeneration status of woody species, spatial cover of the herbaceous species as well as nutritional values of woody and herbaceous species were studied in Mokolodi Nature Reserve (MNR), Botswana. Ten 1 ha quadrats were used to collect data, and in each quadrat, ten 1 m2 plots were used to estimate the spatial cover of herbaceous species. MNR exhibited high species, genera and family richness, but low diversity and eveness. The diversity and eveness values of woody species were 1.44 and 0.38, respectively. Density of woody species was about 4,785 ha-1. Most of the woody species demonstrated unstable population structures and hampered natural regeneration. The spatial cover of all herbaceous species was only 44.67% ha-1. The nutritional values of the species ranged between low and high while there was no information on the nutrtion values for 16 and 55% of the woody species and herbaceous species, respectively. The dominance values of woody species indicate inadequate number of big-sized trees, and that MNR is still at the recovery phase. For 68% of the woody species, natural regeneration is hampered. Future research topics and recommendations on the future management of MNR are proposed. Key words: Density, dominance, evenness, frequency, importance value index, nutritional value, over grazing, population structure, soil erosion, species richness.
Highlights
Following a national and international fund raising drive, which resulted in securing sufficient funds, Mokolodi Wildlife Foundation (MWF) embarked on a project aimed at developing the Mokolodi Nature Reserve (MNR)
The results revealed that MNR contains a relatively high species, genera and family richness of both woody and herbaceous species
The woody species with the highest important value index (IVI) values in MNR, which are inicative of high ecological importance, include D. cinerea, C. apiculatum, S. africana, A. tortilis and E. undulata
Summary
Most of these proclaimed protected areas in Botswana, are located in the central, northern and southwestern parts of the country, which are far from the main centers of the country’s human population (Figure 1). The MNR is slowly recovering, the game species concentrate on the flatter, lower lying areas of the reserve since the grasses are more palatable as the soils contain more mineral salts, which are leached from the higher lying areas This has led to selective overgrazing, and the low amounts of rainfall experienced in the 1980’s and 1990’s have added to this problem
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