Publicação
Impact of slash-and-burn agriculture on key-species regeneration, Cusseque, Angola
| Resumo: | Thousands of people depend on the Okavango basin to support their livelihoods. Different authors have researched about slash-and-burn agriculture, but little is known about its impacts on the natural vegetation of Angola. This study aimed to assess how much traditional communities impact the regeneration of certain woody species - relevant to their own livelihoods - through slash-and-burn agriculture. The study area was at Cusseque, Angola. Free-listing sessions were conducted to understand how wild woody plants were prioritized by the community and 55 people participated in the exercise. Thirty people answered to semi-structured enquiries about their agricultural practises. Slash-and-burn fields were mapped and categorized according to their age. Twenty-one key-species were selected from the free-listing results and their presence-absence, coverage, height and regeneration type were assessed in 21field plots. Data from non-disturbed forest was added as a control group. Locals identified 61 different woody species used for five purposes. Erythrophleum africanum was the most mentioned and used tree. Forest patches for agriculture are usually burned twice, fields are used for about 1 to 3 years, resting years do not usually exceed 3 years, the main source of manure is ash and the most important crop is maize. Key-species regenerated in the plots across the aged field categories. However, differences in cover values were noted. Brachystegia spiciformis and Cryptosepalum exfoliatum ssp. pseudotaxus were the most abundant species in all field categories. Vegetative regeneration was predominant and only nine out of the 21 key-species managed to reach at least 1 m height, while only six reached at least 50 cm of perimeter. This study suggests that slash-and-burn agriculture impacts to some extent the regeneration of key-species. However, the lack of information regarding the key-species limited the understanding of regeneration dynamics. Therefore, further research in the area is critical for an eficient conservation of these species. |
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| Autores principais: | Piedade, Ana Filipa, 1988- |
| Assunto: | Agricultura Plantas lenhosas Cusseque - Angola Teses de mestrado - 2013 |
| Ano: | 2013 |
| País: | Portugal |
| Tipo de documento: | dissertação de mestrado |
| Tipo de acesso: | acesso aberto |
| Instituição associada: | Universidade de Lisboa |
| Idioma: | inglês |
| Origem: | Repositório da Universidade de Lisboa |
| Resumo: | Thousands of people depend on the Okavango basin to support their livelihoods. Different authors have researched about slash-and-burn agriculture, but little is known about its impacts on the natural vegetation of Angola. This study aimed to assess how much traditional communities impact the regeneration of certain woody species - relevant to their own livelihoods - through slash-and-burn agriculture. The study area was at Cusseque, Angola. Free-listing sessions were conducted to understand how wild woody plants were prioritized by the community and 55 people participated in the exercise. Thirty people answered to semi-structured enquiries about their agricultural practises. Slash-and-burn fields were mapped and categorized according to their age. Twenty-one key-species were selected from the free-listing results and their presence-absence, coverage, height and regeneration type were assessed in 21field plots. Data from non-disturbed forest was added as a control group. Locals identified 61 different woody species used for five purposes. Erythrophleum africanum was the most mentioned and used tree. Forest patches for agriculture are usually burned twice, fields are used for about 1 to 3 years, resting years do not usually exceed 3 years, the main source of manure is ash and the most important crop is maize. Key-species regenerated in the plots across the aged field categories. However, differences in cover values were noted. Brachystegia spiciformis and Cryptosepalum exfoliatum ssp. pseudotaxus were the most abundant species in all field categories. Vegetative regeneration was predominant and only nine out of the 21 key-species managed to reach at least 1 m height, while only six reached at least 50 cm of perimeter. This study suggests that slash-and-burn agriculture impacts to some extent the regeneration of key-species. However, the lack of information regarding the key-species limited the understanding of regeneration dynamics. Therefore, further research in the area is critical for an eficient conservation of these species. |
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