Research Article Floristic Composition, Structure, and Species Associations of Dry Miombo Woodland in Tanzania Ezekiel Edward Mwakalukwa, 1,2 Henrik Meilby, 1 and Thorsten Treue 1 1 Department of Food and Resource Economics, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen, Rolighedsvej 23, 1958 Frederiksberg C, Denmark 2 Department of Forest Biology, Faculty of Forestry and Nature Conservation, Sokoine University of Agriculture, P.O. Box 3010, Chuo Kikuu, Morogoro, Tanzania Correspondence should be addressed to Ezekiel Edward Mwakalukwa; ezedwa@yahoo.com Received 20 December 2013; Accepted 4 February 2014; Published 8 May 2014 Academic Editors: M. Drielsma, H. Ford, M. Tigabu, and A. Vi˜ na Copyright © 2014 Ezekiel Edward Mwakalukwa et al. his is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For the majority of forest reserves in Tanzania, biodiversity is poorly documented. his study was conducted to assess species richness (woody species), diversity, and forest structure and to examine relationships between species occurrence and topographic and edaphic factors in the Gangalamtumba Village Land Forest Reserve, a dry Miombo woodland area in Tanzania. A total of 35 nested circular plots with radii of 5, 15, and 20m were used to collect data on woody species and soil samples across the 6,065 ha community-managed forest reserve. Stumps were measured 20cm above ground. A total of 88 species belonging to 29 families were identiied. Generally forest structure parameters and diversity indices indicated the forest to be in a good condition and have high species richness and diversity. Vegetation analysis revealed four communities of which two were dominated by the family Caesalpiniaceae, indicating large variation of site conditions and possible disturbances in the study area. he high level of diversity of woody species and the high basal area and volume indicate that the forest is in good condition, but the efect of anthropogenic activities is evident and stresses the need for proper management to maintain or enhance the present species diversity. 1. Introduction Miombo woodland is the most widespread and dominant dry forest formation in Eastern, Central, and Southern Africa. It is characterized by an abundance of tree species in the legume subfamily Caesalpinoideae, including the three dominant genera of Brachystegia, Julbernardia, and Isoberlinia [1, 2]. Covering an area of about 3.6 million km 2 , miombo wood- land supports the livelihoods of more than 100 million rural and urban dwellers by providing a wide range of products such as irewood, charcoal, timber, and forage and services such as soil conservation and water catchment [3–5]. How- ever, due to the rapid population growth and the high level of poverty across the Miombo region, the human pressure on its woodlands has steadily increased over the last decades, lead- ing to increasing deforestation and forest degradation [6–8]. he efects of increasing rates of deforestation and forest degradation on biodiversity in developing countries have been thoroughly studied [9–12]. Habitat loss due to deforesta- tion reduces not only the number of species in the ecosystem but also the number and extent of places where species coexist. Activities such as charcoal production, irewood col- lection for subsistence use and for tobacco curing, conversion of woodlands to farmland, and seasonal forest ires are among the major drivers of deforestation and forest degradation in the Miombo region [13–17]. It is estimated that 1.4 million ha of woodlands is lost annually in the countries where Miombo woodlands dominate, leading to a loss of carbon stocks, biodiversity, and, through soil degradation, loss of plant nutrients [4, 5]. Syampungani et al. [5, p. 151] stated that “loss of biodiversity and extinction of most of the woodland resources are imminent if the current intensive exploitation of Miombo resources continues unchecked.” More speciically, FAO (2000a, cited by Syampungani et al. [5]) reported that 191 tree species in the Miombo ecoregion are endangered due Hindawi Publishing Corporation ISRN Biodiversity Volume 2014, Article ID 153278, 15 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/153278