Assessing plant utilisation by communities bordering a protected area in Zimbabwe using utilitarian diversity metrics

Abstract

Protected areas and their peripheries harbour biodiverse ecosystems which underpin ecosystem service provision to local communities. Understanding the relationship between the species contained within these ecosystems and the utilitarian services they provide is important. However, there is a shortage of quantitative methods for assessing species’ utilitarian roles. We used a dendrogram-based method to quantify utilitarian diversity and an ordination method to determine co-occurrences in three sites at the periphery of Gonarezhou National Park, in Zimbabwe. The use categories for the plants were determined using household questionnaire surveys, and vegetation data was collected via standard plotless sampling techniques. There was higher plant diversity in the sites adjacent to the protected area, i.e. Malipati communal area (S = 45; Simpson’s index = 0.7271) and Gonakudzingwa farms (S = 50; Simpson’s index = 0.9351), with the lowest diversity recorded at the site far from the park, i.e. Chomupani communal area (S = 25; Simpson’s index = 0.6305). Utilitarian diversity was also highest in the areas adjacent to the protected area, with Malipati and Gonakudzingwa having values of 22.2 and 21.4, respectively, while Chomupani attained 20.6. A principal component analysis ordination indicated which utilitarian species occurred in the same areas. Our results contribute to plant conservation by highlighting the utilitarian relationships of species at protected area peripheries. This allows planners and conservationists to set conservation priorities to avoid losing species that contribute the most to ecosystem service provision.

Keywords:

• Gonarezhou
• alpha diversity
• utilitarian diversity
• protected areas
• ecosystem services

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This work was conducted within the framework of the Research Platform “Production and Conservation in Partnership” (www.rp-pcp.org). We thank the Ministère des Affaires Etrangeres, France, for supporting Dowo G. M. through the FSP-RenCaRe project (FSP no 2011/36). We would like to thank Clarice Mudzengi, Cavin Mandina, Billy Butete, Pastor Baloyi and Pastor Stephen Chauke for assistance with fieldwork and staff from the Ministry of Agriculture (Ms. Chipangura, Nation Pasvani and Mr. Chauke) for accompanying us in Chomupani and Gonakudzingwa. Much thanks also to Professor Amy Dunham (Rice University, USA) for introducing me to the work of Brown et al. which guided this study.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

SUPPLEMENTAL DATA

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/0035919X.2024.2326101.