Tropical African forests are thought to be declining due to human activity, resulting in serious threat to local communities and wildlife. The threatened status of populations of Juniperus procera and Olea africana was studied in Loliondo, Tanzania. Three hundred persons were interviewed in ten Maasai communities concerning tree utilization for fence and house construction, firewood, traditional medicine and gourd sterilization. By comparing the indices for 169 species, J. procera and O. africana usage was significantly higher than all other species (Kruskal-Wallis, chi2 = 15.3, DF = 2, p = 0.0005). Ninety-six percent of interviewees have witnessed local decline in J. procera and O. africana. In conjunction with interviews, ecological sampling was carried out in community forests to determine species status. The correlations of size class distributions are not typical of "healthy" plant populations. If current trends continue local extinction of J. procera and O. africana may occur.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.30743 |
| Date | January 1999 |
| Creators | Searle, Nicholas A. |
| Contributors | Johns, T. A. (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Department of Plant Science.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001744494, proquestno: MQ64448, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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