THE POTENTIAL OF BONGA FOREST FOR CERTIFICATION

A Case Study

Taye Bekele

Institute of Biodiversity Conservation and Research (IBCR), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Introduction

Bonga forest is located in Keffa zone of the Southern Nations Nationalities & People's region (SNNPR), which is found within the southwestern plateau of Ethiopia. It covers a total area of about 161,424 ha and lies within 07° 00'-7°25'N Latitude and 35°55'-36°37'E Longitude, stretching across the boundaries of five contiguous woredas; namely; Gimbo, Menjiwo, Tello, Decha and Chena. The altitude of the area ranges from 1000 to 3350 m.a.s.l; consisting of a highly dissected plateau, with flat to moderately undulating terrain on areas above 1500 m.a.s.l (Matheos Ersado, 2001).

The forest experiences one long rainy season, lasting from March/ April to October. The mean annual rainfall ranges from 1710 mm at Bonga station to 1892 mm at Wushwush station. Over 85% of the total annual rainfall, with mean monthly values in the range of 125-250 mm occurs in the 8 months long rainy season. The mean temperatures is 19.4° C at Bonga while it is 18.1° C at Wushwush station, which is located 200 m higher than Bonga ( Matheos Ersado, 2001).

There are three major river bodies that drain the catchments of Bonga forest; they are Gojeb, Dinchia and Woshi rivers. The Gojeb River along with its numerous tributaries drains the northeastern part of the areas on the eastern block accounting for about 22% of the total catchments. The Dinchia River together with its tributaries drains the central parts of the forest. The Woshi River drains areas situated along the western most parts of the forest accounting for about 28.8% of the total forest area (Matheos Ersado, 2001).

According to the recent inventory carried out by the Institute of Biodiversity Conservation and Research through the GTZ-supported Forest genetic resources Conservation project, Bonga forest is characterized by three distinct vegetation types (Matheos Ersado, 2001). These vegetation types are described below. About 106 woody plant species belonging to 74 genera and 38 families were recorded during the inventory of Bonga forest.

Upland Rain Forest Vegetation. This vegetation occurs at altitudes between 155-2200 m. a.sl. and characterized by big tree species such as Olea welwitschii, Scheffleria abyssinica, Euphorbia obovalifolia, Croton macrostachyus, Albizia schimpeeriana, Prunus africana, Syzygium guineense, Plyscias fulva. It also contains common smaller trees and shrubs such as Milletia ferrugina, Teclia nobillis, Dracaena studneri, D. afromontana, Galiniera saxifraga and Coffea arabica. ground herbs include false cardamon (Aframomum corrorima). Manikira, a place where coffee was discovered is found in Keffa zone.

Upland Humid Forest Vegetation. This vegetation occurs at altitudes between 2450-2800 m.a.s.l. and characterized by tree and shrub species such as Hagenia abyssinica, Ilex mitis, Myrsine melanophloeos (Rapaenia simensis), Maesa lanceolata and Barsama abyssinica.

Sinarindunaria/Bamboo Thicket. This vegetation occurs at altitudes between 2400-3050 m.a.s.l. and characterized by bamboo thicket either in pure stands or may exist in mixture with trees, including H. abyssinica, M. melanophloeos, and Hypericum revolutum.

The areas in and around Bonga forest are inhabited by at least 48 mammalian species, representing fourteen families and 100 bird species were recorded from the area (Matheos Ersado, 2001, EWNHS, 1996). Fifteen of the bird species are reported to comprise the "Highland Biome Assemblages in Ethiopia.

There are 84 service cooperatives in the zone out of which 12 are forest coffee cooperatives.