The application of biplot and procrustes analyses on conservation assessment of non timber forest products in Africa

Abstract

The Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFP) is all kinds of forest products except timber. NTFP is very important in forest conservation, because it can bring the stabilization of the over exploitation of Timber Forest Products (TFP). The Conservation Assessment is aimed at assessing the role of each NTFP case in forest conservation. This assessment relies on expert judgment. All NTFP cases are going to be compared with two kinds of land-use alternative, natural forest alternative and most realistic land use alternative. Biplot analysis shows which NTFP cases are characterized by the indicator of conservation (variables). The data on most NTFP cases shows positive values when compared to the most realistic land- use alternative. This indicates that the management of a land-use system is more intensive. Procrustes analysis shows the difference between two assessments on a different land-use system, the natural forest alternative and most realistic land-use system. The R² value of procrustes analysis 11.65%, shows that conservation assessment on natural forest alternative is very much different from conservation assessment on most realistic land-use alternative.