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Vegetation maps enable sound spatial understanding of the botany and ecology of a country or region. The Horn of Africa has been blessed with the early publication of a 1:5 000 000 vegetation map (Pichi-Sermolli, 1957), which has helped orient researchers for decades. This map also provided a regional base for the 1:5 000 000 Vegetation Map of Africa (White, 1983), which has been widely used for conservation planning (e.g. Burgess et al., 2004). The newly published Atlas is an off-shoot of the recently completed Flora of Ethiopia and Eritrea and provides the next step for Ethiopian vegetation science.
The 1:2 000 000 vegetation map is depicted in 29 colour plates at the back of the Atlas. As the title suggests, 19 separate vegetation types characterise 'potential' vegetation, i.e. the vegetation that one would have expected to see had it not been for major human interference (see also Pichi-Sermolli (1957) and White (1983)). On the map only 14 out of the 19 different vegetation units are distinguished, as unfortunately the four subtypes of dry Afromontane forest and grassland and the two subtypes of moist Afromontane evergreen forest could not be spatially recognised (see also methodology below). Riverine vegetation could not be mapped because of its narrow size.
The text of the Atlas begins by presenting the physical environment of Ethiopia, followed by a history of vegetation maps in the country. The map units of Pichi-Sermolli (1957) and White (1983) are compared...