Floristic Diversity, Composition and Structure of Communal Forests in Cameroon: The Case of the Ngomedzap Communal Forest

Faced with threats to its flora potential, the Cameroonian government's interest in ecologically and economically sustainable management of communal forests is growing. The aim of this study is to analyse the flora diversity, composition and structure of the Ngomedzap communal forest. The methodological approach combines the inventory of woody plants in 25 m x 25 m plots set up in different types of land use. The inventories identified 187 woody species, distributed among 147 genera and 51 families. A floristic similarity was noted between the two types of agroforests, with a coefficient of 54.62 %, and between the two types of forests, with a coefficient of 66.13 %. The values of the Fischer index show that the agroforests are very homogeneous, with coefficients of 13.75 for agroforests with young cacao trees and 9.58 for agroforests with old cacao trees. In contrast to forests, which are highly heterogeneous with values of 48.88 for mature secondary forests and 49.03 for FSJ. Furthermore, the values of the Shannon index show that agroforests are less diverse, with values of 1.19 and 1.24 compared to 4.24 and 4.33 in forests. The study of geographical distribution reveals the dominance of Guineo-Congolian species, with 108 species (57.75% of the total identified species). The overall importance value index shows that the most important species are Pycnanthus angolensis (13.47%), Coelocaryon preusii (11.47 %) and Milicia excelsa (11.15 %). The dominant families are Malvaceae (56.68%), Fabaceae (28.07 %), and Myristicaceae (21.39 %). These results demonstrate the growing importance of agroforests, which are an adaptation strategy and a means of combating climate change. Among the studied flora, 135 species are classified as Least Concern; 29 species are Not Evaluated; 8 species are Near Threatened; 11 species are Vulnerables 2 species are Critically Endangered: Afraegle asso and Guibourtia tessmannii.