Diversite et structure des Iigneux arborescents dans la Reserve Naturelle des Bonobos de Kokolopori (Secteur Sud, Djolu, R. D. Congo)

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Kokolopori Bonobo Natural Reserve is a community conservation entity in Tshuapa District in the Province of Equateur. It extends over 4,785 km2 of which 785 km2 constitute a completely protected zone. It is one of the forests which still host bonobos (pan panicus) in natural conditions. According to the administrators' annual report, no botanical study has been conducted in the reserve since its creation in 2009, except for some inventories of plants eaten by bonobos and other big monkeys. The main objective of this study is to characterize the arborescent vegetation, a preliminary stage, and primarily to set up integrated conservation and valorization strategies of the biodiversity of this natural reserve. The transect method permitted data collection. All trees with DBH?;:10cm were marked and identified along a 3,000m long track on a 10m stripe, and divided into 12 small squares measuring 10m x 250m. During this study 1,526 tree species were investigated after their identification. As a whole, 127 species belonging to 90 genera and 35 families were obtained. Fabaceae, Ebenaceae, Phylanthaceae families were the most important in both genera and species. In the biological spectrum, only Phanerophyts are taken into consideration, among them Mesophanerophyts are the most dominant (49.61%). Phytogeographical spectra have a Guinean Centro element dominance (37.01 %) whereas among types of diaspores, Sarchores are the most abundant (62.99%). After ordering those 12 small squares by ACP and AFC, two groupings were obtained in the southern part of the reserve, that is, mixed primary forest on firm ground, and primary forest periodically flooded.