The Effects of Protection on the Diversity of ...

It was aimed to investigate the efficiency of forest protection practices on the biodiversity conservation in Juniper stands of Zagros forests, Iran in this research. Two protected and unprotected Juniper stands were selected in Zagros forests as the study areas. They were inventoried by line intersect sampling method to estimate the number of tree and shrub species in four height levels (<0.5m, 0.5-1.0m, 1.0-1.5m, 1.5m<). The results showed that the biodiversity and richness of the protected Juniper stand were significantly higher that of the unprotected one. It is also necessary to mention that the indicators in each height level were higher in the protected stand but the differences were insignificant. It was concluded that although the species diversity was improved in the protected Juniper stand but more tending operations are necessary to make significantly different diverse stands by protection strategies in Juniper forests of Zagros region.