Socio-economic importance and biomass carbon stocks of African baobab (Adansonia digitata L.) in Northwestern Ethiopia

The African baobab ( Adansonia digitata L.) provides vital economic and ecological benefits in dryland ecosystems, yet faces severe sustainability challenges. This study assessed the socio-economic importance, stand structure, and biomass carbon stock of baobab across three land-use types (homesteads, agricultural lands, and woodlands) in northwestern Ethiopia. Data were collected through household surveys ( \(\:n=352\) ), focus group discussions, and biophysical forest inventory across 72 plots ( \(\:20\;m×\:25\;m=500\;{m}²\) ). Socio-economic data were synthesized using descriptive statistics and thematic coding, while one-way ANOVA was used to evaluate variations in stand parameters and biomass carbon stocks across land-use matrices. Results revealed strong community reliance on baobab for food (84.0%), household income (78.5%), material applications (73.8%), ethnomedicine (72.4%), cultural services (45.6%) and animal fodder (21.5 \(\:%\) ). Mean biomass carbon stocks differed significantly across land uses ( \(\:p<0.001\) ), peaking in homesteads ( \(\:58.61±\:3.12\;Mg\:C\:ha⁻¹)\) compared to agricultural parklands ( \(48.15±\:2.84\;Mg\:C\:ha⁻¹)\) and natural woodlands ( \(43.51±\:2.45\;Mg\:C\:ha⁻¹\) ). The overall mean biomass carbon stock was \(50.09±\:1.16\;Mg\:C\:ha⁻¹\) , corresponding to an equivalent of \(183.67±\:4.27\;Mg\:CO₂\;e\:ha⁻¹\) stored in living baobab tissue. However, size-class distributions demonstrated an unsustainable demographic trajectory. Woodlands exhibited a truncated structure completely devoid of mega-tree cohorts ( \(\:>200\;cm\) \(\:DBH\) ), whereas homesteads functioned as structural refugia for relict mature trees. Crucially, juvenile regeneration was critically deficient across all land uses. Unregulated commercial and artisanal gold mining, agricultural land expansion, recurrent wildfires, and intensive extraction were identified as the primary drivers of population degradation. Reversing this trajectory requires institutionalizing community-led assisted natural regeneration, establishing spatial mining buffers, enforcing sustainable harvesting, and integrating germplasm nurseries into national frameworks like the Green Legacy initiatives.