ABSTRACT

The study assessed the extent of community participation and the vegetation structure of Eme River and Nkalunta mixed Rainforest Reserves (FR) of Abia State with objectives of determining forest cover change, impact of livelihood activities on stand structure, regeneration and soil properties. Landsat imagery of 1980 to 2020 was acquired from NASA Earthdata archive. QGIS version 3.6 was used to extract Percentage Tree Cover. For community participation, 160 questionnaires administered to 160 households, Focus Group Discussions, observation and structure interviews were used to extract information. One hundred and forty one questionnaires were retrieved and analysed using descriptive analysis. Physical indicators of shrubs, tree, grassland and bareground were used to express stand structure. Enumeration of plant species was carried out using two plots measuring 100m each, laid in the unplanted area of the reserves, which were divided into 25 sample plots of 5 m x 5m each and further divided into 16 sub sample plots of 4m x 4m each were all plant species measuring 1.0cm girth were recorded, diameter at breast height and tree species height measured. R statistical software version 4.0 was used to analyse vegetation data obtained and compared impact of vegetation structure on plant species richness and the relationship between the livelihood activities. For regeneration, 1m x1m quadrants within fruit dispersal distances of 10m, 20m, 30m and 40m radius were mapped out within selected tree species; seedlings, saplings and coppice present were recorded. Soil samples were collected with the use of soil auger and polyethylene bags at the depths of 0 -15cm and15 – 30cm on the planted area, unplanted area and community land for comparison. One way analysis of variance was used to analyse data, using SPSS version 21. The percentage tree cover in Eme FR was highest in 2005 (87.82%) and lowest in 2020 (26.38%) while Nkalunta FR was highest in 1990 (91.98%), but lowest in2020 (21.53%). Shrubby vegetation type was dominant in both Eme River and Nkalunta FR, followed by tree vegetation type while grassland was the least. Nkalunta FR reduced to 25% forest area while Eme FR reduced to 42%, 76  plant species recorded in Eme FR while 69 plant species in Nkalunta FR, 38 and 32 species were unique to Eme FR and Nkalunta FR respectively. Farming activity (df = 1, χ² = 10.6681, P = 0.0011) had a significant effect on plant species richness. There is a higher level of tree species regeneration in Eme FR compared to Nkalunta FR based on recorded levels of seedling, coppicing and sapling. Soil nutrient index showed that N, P, K and Mg are very high in Nkalunta with moderate Ca while in Eme FR N and K are very high, P- high, Ca and Mg were low. The study showed that farming and lumbering activities significantly affected the vegetation structure overtime. There should be increased extension services to enhance regular effective monitoring, adoption of modern conservation practices to stabilize the existing vegetation and harness the essence of community participation.