Abstract:
A coffee agroforest has been promoted as means of preserving biodiversity in the tropics.
Therefore, this study was conducted on diversity, regeneration, usage of woody species and
soil organic carbon under SFC and natural forest of Belete forest priority area, south west,
Ethiopia. To conduct the study, 60 plots (30 from natural forest and 30 from semi forest
coffee) samples were taken using simple random sampling methods. And a total of 60 soil
samples were collected from the two site and SOC, soil texture, bulk density and pH were
analyzed. Household survey was conducted to collect woody species usage under natural
forest and SFC. A total of 120 households (60 households for each sites) were randomly
selected for the interview on usage of woody species through semi-structured interviews. The
vegetation data was analyzed for woody species diversity, Importance value index, similarity
coefficient, density and basal Area, regeneration and usage parameters. A total of 47 woody
species were recorded belonging to 24 families in natural forest and 34 woody species
belonging to 17 families in SFC were identified and recorded. Although more woody species
were recorded under the natural forest, the difference was not statistically significant
(p>0.05).The difference in species richness and Shannon diversity index of woody species
between natural forest and semi forest coffee were also not statistically significant (p>0.05).
Regeneration status of seedling and sapling of woody species had showed significant
(P<0.05) differences between the natural forest and semi forest coffee. However, there was
no statistically significant difference (p > 0.05) between the natural forest and semi forest
coffee interms of tree density. The conservation practices and usage of woody species under
the natural forest and semi forest coffee are the same. It was observed that tree species
diversity and Household (HH) dependency on coffee production increased with the closeness
of the adjacent natural forest. Soil carbon was analyzed in laboratory. The SOC under the
native forest was 51.35 ± 0.11and 50.64 ± 0.08 under the semi forest coffee. Native forest and
semi forest coffee had no significant difference by its SOC. It is concluded that woody species
management practices in the study area of semi-forest coffee farms more or less the same to
the adjacent natural forest. So semi-forest coffee has to be promoted as the main land use
system in minimizing woody species loss with continuous monitoring of the forest area
