AN ASSESSMENT OF TREE SPECIES DIVERSITY AND THEIR POTENTIAL FOR CARBON SEQUESTRATION IN BORGU SECTOR OF KAINJI LAKE NATIONAL PARK

Abstract

Global warming is becoming a huge problem for the society due to carbon emission in the wake of modernization and urbanization. Forests biodiversity, soils, oceans and atmosphere are agents for storage of carbon. Rapid urban development around Borgu Park area has created large human concentration around the park with high demand for natural resources. Increased reliance on floral diversity services for human sustainability constitutes a growing threat to the physical integrity, richness, biodiversity productivity of woodland in the park. The study aimed at identifying the different trees within the park with the objective of identifying the sequestration capacity of the species identified. The point centered quarter (PCQ) method was adopted to determine the Important Value Index (IVI) of various species. The carbon sequestration computation involved: Determining the total (green) weight of the tree, the dry weight of tree; the weight of carbon in the tree; weight of carbon dioxide sequestered in the tree; and the weight of CO2 sequestered in the tree per year. Sixteen (16) species were identified using the PCQ method with variation in their girth. The important value index gives the value for the most dominant species found in the study area. The most important tree species in the study area were found to be; Terminalia glauscens, Vitalaria paradoxa, with an IVI values of 28.16, 21.13, respectively. While the least important tree species with IVI values of 1.76, 1.77, were found to be Acacial seyal, crossopteryx ferbrifuga respectively. The sequestration performance for the different species identified were calculated and found to be for a tree of 10 to 15 years with an average DBH of 11cm would sequester between 26 to 29kg of carbon per year for the most important species and between 18kg and 25kg of carbon per year. Tree species identified in the study area has the ability to sequester certain amount of carbon dioxide which is one of the green house gasses that causes climate change. Efforts should be geared towards conserving the degraded areas with carbon sequestration activities been part of planning because this can be integrated as a management option and carbon credit projec