FLORESTIC COMPOSTION, STRUCTURE AND REGENERATION STATUS OF GENJI GENET NATURAL FOREST IN KONTA SPECIAL WOREDA SOUTHERN NATION NATIONALITY PEOPLE REGIONS, ETHIOPIA

<strong>ABSTRACT</strong>: Genji forest is one of the very few remnant moist evergreen montane forests in konta District, SNNPRS, and Ethiopia. The objective of this work was to investigate the floristic composition, structure and regeneration status of Genji forest, in konta District, SNNPRS, and Ethiopia. Four transect line were laid between 200 m apart starting from the bottom valley to the top ridge from North to South. From sample quadrates Vegetation data was collected as 20m x20 m(400m2), 5m x 5m(25m2), and 1m x 1m (1m2)were laid for trees, shrubs, sapling and seedling, as well as for herbaceous layer respectively in a nested form. The sample quadrats were laid down along transects at a distance of 100m from each other. A total of 62 quadrats were sampled 119 plant species belonging 51 families and 99 genera were recorded. Agglomerative hierarchical cluster analysis was performed using similarity ratio in R software. Shannon - Wiener Diversity Index was used to calculate species diversity and evenness. Three plant community types were identified in the study forest from thise communities I and II had the highest similarity ratio which is 0.82. The least similarity ratio was exhibited by Communities II and III which is 0.74. The result from the analysis showed communities I and II, community I and III, and communities II and III shared about 82%, 79% and 74% similarity in species composition respectively. Furthermore, Genji-Genet forest harbors 9 endemic species; was identified by following the IUCN Red list criteria. Similarly, the results from analyzed data showed the most species rich families was Asteraceae. Tree occupied the highest proportion followed by shrubs and herbs while climbers, lianas and trees/shrubs scored the least proportion in the study area. The total density of woody species with DBH greater than 2.5 cm ,10cm and 20cm shows respectively in the Genji forest was 322.6 Ind/ ha-1, 245.5 Ind/ha ha-1 and 213.5Ind/ha ha-1.The total basal area of the woody species in Genji forest was 61.5 m2/ha. In Genji forest regeneration analysis some species with no seedling and sapling showed under lower regeneration status which calls for the need of serious attention for conservation and management.