Plant harvest impacts and sustainability in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, S.W. Uganda

Abstract

Sustainable utilization of forest resources has been widely adopted as a conservation strategy, but that sustainability has rarely been empirically tested. Plant resource extraction from Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (BINP) by local communities has been legalized and controlled in areas called multiple use zones (MUZs). Through a series of systematic transects and plots, we determined harvest impacts of two mostly harvested medicinal plants ofRyti-gynia kigeziensisVERDC.l andOcotea usambarensisEngl inBINP. The plots were placed in MUZs and non-MUZs. Dataon biomass production and population dynamics were collected from the plots. We also analysed forest society recordsfor the past 3 years to determine annual plant resource off takes from BINP. Bark production of the two plants in MUZs and non-MUZs are not significantly different, suggesting an insignificant change in bark production because of bark harvest. Annual bark harvests of the two plants are between 0.26–1.64% of available bark stock. These are too low to cause any noticeable negative impacts and are sustainable. Annual bark harvest of R. kigeziensis andO.usambarensis should be increased from the original 1% to about 3% of available bark stock to allow more involvement of the marginalized poor people like Batwa in BIN