The structure and status of forest fragments outside protected areas in central Uganda

Given the extent of tropical forest deforestation and as a number of conservation programmes and local communities rely on forest fragments, it has become important to understand how fragment exploitation by local communities affects forest structure and function. The effects of forest exploitation on forest structure and status of forest fragments were investigated in 20 nonreserved forest fragments in central Uganda. Enumeration of plots showed that tree species composition of the forest fragments was 60.0%, 23.7% and 6.3% for under-storey, middle and top canopy trees respectively. The major activity was fuel wood extraction (65%), followed by brick making (10%), cultivation and livestock paddocks (10%), charcoal burning (5%), local brew distillation and others (5%). These extractive processes caused drastic structural changes, habitat degradation and destruction. Tree stumps enumeration indicated that under storey trees formed the highest proportion for wood extraction. There was no significant difference in the level of forest exploitation (basal area loss) among forest patches of varying sizes.