Threats and Ethnobotanical use of Plants in the Weredas of Afar Region, Ethiopia - Abstract
Biodiversity conservation assured through proper timely set study of their status and conservation measure that depends on the type of species at a given time and place of existence. A study to identify the current use and conservation status of plant by the people in afar region was carried out in November 2019 in the systematically selected weredas of the region. A total of 41 respondents were participated from the three study weredas and 39 ethnobotanically useful plants that taxonomically belong to 23 family and 28 genera were identified. The three dominant family of the identified plant species were 22% Fabaceae and Capparidaceae, and 17% Solanaceae. The growth form diversity of the plants was 68% shrubs, 15 % herbs and 6% each climbers and trees. The most used part of the plants and administration method were the leaf part and oral methods respectively. The main challenge of the plant biodiversity in the surveyed werdas were; the existence of rapid invasion of invasive species particularly, prosopis juliflora, Highly pronounced drought and climate change, The nomadic nature of the people in the studied wereda, Low regeneration status of some plant species were the primary threat of the plant in the wereda. Priorities should give for the most threatened plant species used by the local community of the surveyed sites in either of in situ and ex situ conservation sites for their sustainability