Principal Ways to Promote Amelioration of De- graded Miombo Ecosystems in Semi-Arid Tanza- nia

Miombo woodlands are representative of a significant type of dry deciduous woodland ecosystem found in semi-arid Tanzania. Management of the miombo woodlands in Tanzania has for many years been based only on timber harvesting regulations such as the allowable cut and minimum diameters. Information on silvicultural treatments is lacking and this has led to over-exploitation of commer-cially important tree species hence a need to introduce simple and cost effective methods for resto-ration of degraded miombo woodlands to be researched. Five treatments were applied in disturbed forest reserves of Urumwa and Igombe in Tabora to test their effectiveness in improving structure and species diversity of the woodlands. The applied treatments included: no treatment (control), se-lective felling, thinning, coppicing, and clearfelling with soil re-working. Species diversity indices were determined and compared for the two sites subjected to five woodland management options. The management options applied influenced species diversity to some extent. There is increasing vegetation heterogeneity with time in treated plots and to some extent to no treatment plots possibly due to reduced disturbances. However these plots require further observations for concrete conclu-sions and recommendations. Selection of any of these will largely depend on management objec-tives of a given forest