Monitoring Forest Vegetation and Carbon Change in the Upper Guinea Forest (UGF) - Gola Rainforest National Park, Outamba Kilimi National Park

This database is a combination of sets of Plant data generated in the Upper Guinea Forest specifically in the Gola Rainforest National Park, Outamba Kilimi National Park and in fallows (buffer zones) of these protected areas. All sample sites of this database are in Sierra Leone. The timeline for this database was planned for September 2022 to October 2024. This project was funded by USAID through Tetra Tech/West Africa Biodiversity and Low Emission Development and implemented by Reptile and Amphibian Program Sierra Leone (RAP-SL), under a project titled: “Building Capacity to Monitor Forest Vegetation and Carbon Change in the Upper Guinea Forest through Permanent Sample Plots”. This project is controlled and managed under project number: WABiLED-G-003-RAP-SL. At the Gola Rainforest National Park, two one-hectare permanent plots were sampled at the lowland forest and at Outamba Kilimi National Park, two one-hectare permanent plots were also sampled at a dry savanna and gallery forest. All plots, followed Forest Plots methodology (www.forestplots.net). Plot sizes were square of 100 x 100 m and Coordinates (Latitude, Longitude and elevation) of all plots were recorded at the four corners of each plot. Plots were selected based on physical and human factors like climate, altitude, slopes, and degree of forest used. All plots were in well managed protected areas. Plot data was replicated independently using quadrants. Diameter of all trees in each plot (DBH ≥ 10 cm (100 mm) were recorded with the help of a diameter tape. Tree height of 60 trees, ten trees per diameter class were measured DBH 10 – 20 cm, 21 – 30 cm, 31 – 40 cm, 41 – 50 cm, 51 – 60 cm and >60 cm with the help of a Forestry Pro II Rangefinder. Specimens of doubtful species were collected, press, dried and identified at the National Herbarium of Sierra Leone using matching specimens in the herbarium, floras and monographs (Hawthorne and Jongkind, 2006, Hawthorne and Gyakari, 2006, Hutchinson, J., Dalziel et al., 1954-1972). Specimens for well-known species were not collected. In the field, specimens were identified by a Botanist (Moses N. Sainge) and in the herbarium by Moses and herbarium staff of the National Herbarium at the Njala University campus. Taxonomy identification followed Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG) IV (2016) and the African Plant database (version 4.0.0, http://africanplantdatabase.ch.>). The current database is based on plot surveys, morphospecies identification, physical specimens and observations. In all, a total of 3059 occurrence records are presented in this database, accounting to two classes, 17 orders, 47 families, 148 genera and 235 species. Data was collected at 13 sites: in three protected areas and ten non-protected areas in fallows. One grassland savanna (Outamba Kilimi), one lowland (Gola rainforest) forest, four young fallows of 5 – 7 years old and five old fallows of 10 – 15 years were sampled. This database will be hosted by GBIF South Africa, published by Reptile and Amphibian Program Sierra Leone (RAP-SL), and will be made available to Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) portal for visibility.