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This study was confined to three Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church (EOTC) forests in Gondar
namely; Saint Michael (SMC), Queskum (QUC) and Debrebrhan Selassea (DSC). They are located
in South west, West and North east directions from center of the city respectively. Information was
gathered on woody vegetation characteristics from study plots with the objective of comparing
indigenous and exotic woody species stand density (DS), stand basal area (BAS), importance value
index (IVI) and species diversity (H’). A total of 35 woody species (seven IUCN red listed) belong to
23 families were recorded. Among the records, 25 were indigenous (one endemic) and 10 exotics.
DSC contains 31 species (maximum) belonging to 19 families and overall highest DS was recorded
from same site followed by QUC which contains 24 species belonging to 18 families and lowest from
SMC (22 species from 16 families). Higher H’ was recorded from QUC and lower in SMC. The
Jaccard’s species similarity index (SJ) calculation shows maximum species similarity among overall
and indigenous categories between QUC and DSC and it was highest for exotics between SMC and
DSC. The stand characteristics followed different patterns of variations in DS, BAS, IVI, richness (S),
H’ and evenness (H’E). An analysis of variance showed that species and its density and basal area
and IVI significantly differ between and within groups (p < 0.001). A significant difference was
found (p ≤ 0.005) between species category (indigenous and exotics) and basal area and it was
insignificant between species category and density (p ≥ 0.05).
Key words: Basal area, Church forest ecosystems, Density, Diversity, Importance value index.