EVALUATION OF FOREST BIOMASS AND CARBON STOCK VARIATION ALONG ALTITUDE IN HARANA FOREST, BALE ZONE, SOUTHEASTERN ETHIOPIA: IMPLICATION FOR CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION

The emission of carbon dioxide from fossil fuel and land use change increases the concentration of green house gas in atmosphere. Carbon sequestration through forestry has a significant role in ameliorating global environmental problems. The present study was aimed to evaluate forest biomass and carbon stock variation along altitude in Harana Forest southeast of Ethiopia. Ethiopian forests have no carbon inventory data and the same study has not been conducted regarding carbon stock along altitudinal gradient. The data was collected by transect method from a total of 60 plots along highway right and left 150m away from road; from lower altitude(1450-1900ma.s.l contain24 plots), middle altitude(1900m-2300m a.s.l with18plots) and from upper altitude (2300-2600m a.s.l with 18 plots) using 20m×20m plot size. Data was analyzed using Brown’s 1997equation 3.2.4 and SPSS 20 software. Distribution of species has a unique character as some were unique to lower and some were totally absent from upper zone. Variety of species in lower part was high while relative dominance was low but in upper part the variety was low and relative dominance was high. The study showed that the three zones have different amount of carbon content, stocking 322.47, 391.55 and 386.83 ton ha¯ اcarbon at lower, middle and upper zones respectively. The mean biomass carbon was 362.5±45.96 in the range of global pattern estimation for tropical forest and closer to other findings. But regarding the values altitude have no significant variation at (p<0.05) with F- values 1.322 and P- values 0.267. From the view points of forest protection scientific way of management and buffering zones should made in such a way of promoting carbon trading and for additional financial incentive to the local community who are depending on the forest. Furthermore, the study suggested that as lack of site specific allometric equation for Harana forest interested scholars should develop specific equation sample by using locally harvested sample tree data. 6