Woody species diversity and structure of Afromontane forest in Ethiopia implication for conservation and research gaps

Ethiopia is a key region for biodiversity hotspots and plant diversity due to diverse land features, climatic characteristics, and an extremely heterogeneous ecology. The objective of this review was to document the woody species diversity and structure of Ethiopian Afromontane forests for identifying conservation and research gaps. Various research articles were collected from indexed databases (Scopus, Web of Science, DOAJ, and Sherpa Romeo) focused on the woody species diversity, population structure, and regeneration status of different Ethiopian Afromontane forests. The reviewed documents ranged from the years 2008 to 2025. Woody species diversity, population structure, and regeneration capacity provide valuable information on the status and quality of forest resources. An inverted J-shaped population structure was common in both dry and moist forest patches. The majority of forest patches had stem density per hectare ranging from six hundred to four thousand four hundred. The poor regeneration status from different forest patches of dry and moist afromontane forest required immediate conservation and sustainable management.