Abstract
Humans use plant resources for various purposes. However, there is often an exacerbated use of these plants, directly influencing the floristic composition of the site Sarban Hills (Abbottabad) is an unexplored area of Pakistan, which seems to be a place with intense use of plants. Then it is imperative to investigate the flora of this region, as well as the use of the plant, by the local residents, and observe if there is an intensive use of the local flora.. Field surveys of study area were carried out during 2012-13 to document the timber and fuel wood species. Specimen of each plant species were collected, dried, pressed, poisoned, mounted on standard herbarium sheets and identified with the help of Flora of Pakistan. The local inhabitants were interviewed through semi structured questionnaire. Data noted and transferred to the excel spreadsheet (MS-2010) were used for multivariate analyses. The results showd that, a total of 26 plant species belonging to 23 genera and 16 families were recorded from study area. Out of these, 61% were cited as fuel wood and 39% as timber wood plant species. Tree dominated the plant habit with 69%, and Moraceae was the most dominant family with 5 species. Twenty-six plant species clearly depicted by two main hierarchal branches which further represent three clusters of plant species. Plot matrix reveals the presence and absence of species in both cultural categories i.e., fuel wood and timber wood. Study reflects the overall cultural use scenario with special reference to multivariate approaches cultural terms for the first time. They extensively cut down the trees, and due to this, the pressure on natural resources increases day by day leading the local floral diversity to destruction. Then, conservation strategies must be implemented in the study area to reduce man-made impacts and to try to protect those remote areas that do not present such detailed study of local biodiversity.