Ethnobotanical Use and Conservation of Plants Biodiversity by the Local Community of Welkait Wereda, Western Tigray, Ethiopia

Abstract

An ethonobotanical study is important from the standpoint of conservation and sustainable use of community based knowledge plant biodiversity. A survey to identify and document local community knowledge and a conservation status of the plant biodiversity was conducted in welkait wereda, western Tigray, Ethiopia. A reconnaissance survey, plant interview and different ranking methods were applied to gather primary ethnobotanical data collection.  Respondents from the age of 15-80 years old were selected with the help of Wereda and Tabia agricultural experts and local elders. Data was analyzed using ranks, percentages and SPSS version 20. Nearly 97 plant species serve for different ethnobotanical use that belongs to 52 families and 86 genera were identified from welkait wereda. The growth patern of the plant species were 39% tree, 31% herb, 28% shrub and 2% climbers.  41% of the remedy prepared from the leaves, 16% from root, 19 % stem, 15% fruit, and the remaining is another part of the plant species. The habitat of the identified medicinal plant was 90% wild and 10 % domesticated. Agricultural expansion, firewood collection and free grazing were the three most threats to medicinal plants as described by the informants. Anogeissus leiocarpa, Terminalia brownie and Securidaca longipedunculata were the most threatened medicinal plants based on the score given by the key informants. Education and age of the informants positively correlate (p<0.001, p<0.005 respecively) with number of medicinal plants mentioned. Community based awareness creation and insitu and exsitu conservation method need to be implemented for sustainable utilization of plant biodiversity. Keywords: Adi remets, Welkait, medicinal, Conservation, threats DOI: 10.7176/ALST/83-01 Publication date: November 30 th 2020