Abstract
Angola is a country in south-central Africa, particularly rich in biodiversity. Despite the efforts recently made to document its biodiversity, there is a need for standardized sampling methods to document and compare the variety of ecosystems and plants occurring in the country. With this database report we aim to document the abundance and diversity of woody species in the woodlands of Huíla province. The database hosts the results of a standardised plot-based vegetation survey, consisting of 448 vegetation plots distributed throughout the 14 municipalities and Bicuar National Park. In total, 40,009 individuals belonging to 44 plant families were recorded and measured, belonging to 193 woody species. Species richness per municipality ranged from 32 to 126. The mean stem diameter (DBH) was 10.9 cm ± 7.5 cm. Small-size classes are increasingly dominated by few species, while the largest trees come from a wider range of species; miombo key-species dominated almost all size classes. Our study represents the first plot-based vegetation survey of any Angolan province and constitutes a useful source of information for conservation and management. Additionally, may constitute a powerful dataset to support future studies on biodiversity patterns and vegetation change over time and facilitate the elaboration of vegetation maps. Taxonomic reference: Checklist of Angolan Plants (Figueiredo and Smith 2008), The African Plant Database (version 3.4.0) and A new classification of Leguminosae (LPWG 2017). Abbreviations: DBH = Diameter at Breast Height; GIVD = Global Index of Vegetation-Plot Databases; LUBA = Acronym of the Herbarium of Lubango
Highlights
Africa’s total forest area is estimated at 675 Mha, or about 23% of land area (PROFOR 2012)
This document only provides a general overview of the state of forest resources in Angola; important data to understand the social-ecological dynamics of the woodland ecosystems are still lacking
Using the data from this vegetation database, we provided the first classification of the woodlands of the Huíla province (Chisingui et al 2018) and a comparative assessment of above-ground biomass in the western miombo region (Sichone et al 2018)
Summary
Africa’s total forest area is estimated at 675 Mha, or about 23% of land area (PROFOR 2012). Despite the global importance of forests and woodlands, there is an increasing pressure on forest resources and the situation in Angola is no exception. Replacement of forests by agriculture, urbanisation, or construction of infrastructure, charcoal production, timber exploitation of valuable tree species and human-ignited fires are among others the main causes for deforestation and forest degradation in Africa. Together, these drivers of change have contributed to an estimated loss of 13.7% of intact forests in Angola over the last decade (Schneibel et al 2016, Potapov et al 2017). The southern and south-eastern parts of Angola are currently experiencing severe droughts, posing additional threats to forest resources, as local populations are driven to explore the available natural resources even more to meet their daily needs
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