US Forest Service Technical Assistance Trip Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia In Support to USAID-Ethiopia for Assistance in Rangeland Management Support to the Pastoralist Livelihoods Initiative for USAID-Ethiopia Office of Business Environment Agriculture & Trade Vascular Plants of Negelle-Borona Kallos Mission dates: November 19 to December 21, 2011 Report submitted June 6, 2012 by Karen L. Dillman, Ecologist USDA Forest Service, Tongass National Forest
[email protected] Vascular Plants of Negelle-Borona, Ethiopia, USFS IP Introduction This report provides supplemental information to the Inventory and Assessment of Biodiversity report prepared for the US Agency for International Development (USAID) following the 2011 mission to Negelle- Borona region in southern Ethiopia (Dillman 2012). As part of the USAID supported Pastoralist Livelihood Initiative (PLI), this work focused on the biodiversity of the kallos (pastoral reserves). This report documents the vascular plant species collected and identified from in and around two kallos near Negelle (Oda Yabi and Kare Gutu). This information can be utilized to develop a comprehensive plant species list for the kallos which will be helpful in future vegetation monitoring and biodiversity estimates in other locations of the PLI project. This list also identifies plants that are endemic to Ethiopia and East Africa growing in the kallos as well as plants that are non-native and could be considered invasive in the rangelands. Methods Field work was conducted between November 28 and December 9, 2011 (the end of the short rainy season). The rangeland habitats visited are dominated by Acacia and Commifera trees, shrubby Acacia or dwarf shrub grasslands.