Identification and assessment of macro-floral resources in the Banaue Rice Terraces watershed [Cordillera Region, Philippines]

Results revealed that 45 families, 70 genus, and 136 families existed in the study sites. All of the species surveyed were angiosperms except for three tree ferns that belonged to Pteridophytes. Among the three 0.4 ha plots, muyong or private woodlot had the highest species richness with 97 species followed by the communal with 83 species and mossy forests with 51 species. A total of 2430 individuals distributed to 764,586, and 1,080 for communal, mossy, and muyong forests, respectively. The diversity index of muyong (3.962) compared to the communal forest's 3,582 and the mossy forest's 3.418 implied that muyong has greater number of species present than the other plots. Meanwhile, among the 764 trees found in the communal forest, 'Kalechong' had the highest species density with 90 individuals. Calophyllum blancoi has the highest species diversity in the mossy forest with 46 individuals while Litsea guercoides dominated the muyong with 145 individuals. It was also Litsea guercoides, which has the highest relative frequency (3.76%) and abundance with 227 individuals with the three study sites Kalecheng ranked second with 132 individuals and a 327% relative frequency followed by Helicia robusta with 91 individuals and a 3.10% relative frequency. As for Species Importance Value (SIV), the species with high importance value included Litsea guercoides, Eurya sp., Kalacheng, Turpinia ovalifolia, and Helica robusta. Lithocarpus ovalis dominated the mossy forest while Symplocos sp. and Neonnauclea media dominated the 'muyong' and communal forest, respectively. on the other hand, species similarity profile index between the forest types showed a relatively low value (7-30%) meaning that most of the species found in each forest type differed and only a few species was found across all forest types. The ethnobotany survey revealed 118 economically important species, 69 of which are for housing construction, 43 for wood carving, 99 for fuelwood, 63 for lumber, 58 for furniture, 5 for fiber, 30 for live fence, 4 for dyes, 9 for ornamentals, 1 for fertilizer, 5 for pesticides, 24 medicinal species, 27 with socio-cultural use, and 16 for human food. The 27 socio-cultural important plants were found to be commonly used during socio-cultural rites. Potential livelihood opportunities such as seedling production of indigenous tree species for reforestation and assisted natural regeneration and mass propogation of economic species were also identified. As an income-generating project of the community, the first project would require visitors of the rice terraces to buy seedlings from the nursery and plant it in designated areas as part of the reforestation program of the community.