Woody Species Characterization and Governance of a Protected Area in Togo: Case of Djamde Wildlife Reserve, Northern Togo

Abstract

The aim of this study is to carry out a forest inventory within Djamde reserve in order to draw up a development and management plan covering the reserve area. Study also create an Ecological Corridor between Wildlife Reserve and Sarakawa's Park and to promote public-private partnership in protected area management. The most striking characteristic of tropical forests, however, is the diversity of life they contain. Although the factors that generate and maintain high species diversity in the tropics have attracted considerable scientific focus.

To date, there is still no legislative enactment that establishes Djamde's reserve status. Since 2003, its management has been granted to TOGO-FAUNE Company. A sampling scheme was developed for Djamde Wildlife Reserve from cartographic holdings. A square mesh was created using ArcView 3.2 software. This mesh has made it possible to place the plots over the whole reserve.

Different plant communities identified are: clear forests, gallery forests, shrubby savannas and a mosaic of wooded / tree savannas. The inventory of woody species carried out on circular plots, allowed to identify 126 ligneous species distributed in 40 botanical families and 94 genera. Eleven of these species are classified in the IUCN Red List with the status of "extinction risk".

The pressures on the biodiversity of Djamde's reserve include poaching, wood fuel production and vegetation fires. Nowadays, Djamde Wildlife Reserve, which is still under private governance, is however managed by a curator under the supervision of a director and his deputy who coordinate the activities of the Sarakawa-Djamde complex.