Publication of Research Paper “Impact of wild animals and anthropogenic activities on survivorship and abundance of Raphiafariniferain Naiwale and its two co-joining streams in Thondwe, Malawi

A comparative study of impacts of wild animals and anthropogenic activities on survivorship and abundance of Raphia farinifera along three close streams was donein Thondwe area, Malawi because although these plants are conspicuously exposed to threats no study has been made on their conservation status. In this study, we divided each stream into three equal sections where we determined the adult and juvenile palm abundance through total counting once in the study period. The average distribution of adult and juvenile palms per km/stretch of Ntalikachawo, Naiwale and Namikango streams were 9; 280; and 70 respectively with no any palm observed in the upper sectionsof the streams. Weobserved that the survivorships of sampled adult and juvenile palms as follow: middle and lower Ntalikachawo had 100%, middle and lower Naiwale had 73.9% and 100% respectively while middle and lower Namikango had 64.5% and 82.4% respectively. Study was also conducted on R. farinifera use, land use activities and impact of wild animals where data were collected through direct observation and interviewing of 47 households. 76.6% of respondents indicated that people do not enhance palm growth in the area. On dispersal, 63.8% of respondents indicated that Raphia fruits are dispersed by water within the stream while 14.9% of respondents had the view that they are dispersed by human beings. Therefore from this study weconclude that wild animals and human beings play little role in the dispersalof R.farinifera but human beings have a role on its profusion and survivorship along the study streams.