Effect of harvesting intensity on natural highland bamboo (Oldeania alpina (K.Schum.) Stapleton) forest culm emergence and recruitment in Ankeshia district, North-west Ethiopia

Highland bamboo ( Oldeania alpina ) is an important forest resource in North-west Ethiopia that has many versatile uses. Five harvesting treatments (involving 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% harvesting intensities of culms aged three or more years) were conducted in 300m 2 plots set in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications, in unmanaged natural bamboo forest in the Mesela area of Ankesha district, Northwest Ethiopia. Data on culm regeneration, culm productivity (number of harvested culms per plot) and DBH of new culms were recorded for seven consecutive years. The data were analysed in R using a mixed-effects model, with harvesting intensity and year as fixed factors and block as the random factor. The number of emerging culms differed significantly with harvesting intensity as well as with harvesting year. Harvesting 100% and 75% mature culms resulted in higher numbers of new culms (189±70.5 and 189±87.3) than the 0% (160±73.1), 25% (169±89.8) and 50% (168.0±81.8) harvesting intensities. The greatest numbers of new culms emergence per plot were observed in the second year of harvesting followed by the fourth year and thereafter a decreasing trend was observed. The DBH of new culms increased up to the final year harvesting in all treatments. Moreover, harvesting 100% mature culms in the fifth year yielded more mature culms than 75%, 50% and 25% mature culm harvesting. Therefore, our study has an important implication for the sustainable management of bamboo forests, namely that O. alpina forests growing in similar environments can be managed through harvesting mature culms with higher harvesting intensities to ensure sustainable culm yield production. • Effect of mature culm harvesting intensities on culm recruitment were assessed. • Completely randomized block design was used to conduct the experiment. • Culm recruitment was significantly influence via harvesting intensities. • Harvesting intensities had a significant effect culm diameter. • The amount of harvested mature culm significantly affected by mature culm harvesting intensities. • Repeated culm cutting over years steadily decreased culm recruitment after fourth year of harvesting mature culms.