By: Achille Hounkpèvi, Félicien Tosso, Dossou Sèblodo Judes Charlemagne Gbèmavo, Edouard Konan Kouassi, Daouda Koné, Romain Glèlè Kakaï Key Words: Climatic envelope, MaxEnt, Species distribution modelling, Representation gap analysis, Vitex doniana.
Sustainable management actions are needed for several indigenous agro forestry plant species like the black plum (Vitex doniana Sweet) because they are facing increasing pressures due to the rapid human growth and threats such as climate change. By combining species distribution modelling using the Maximum Entropy Algorithm (Max Ent) and representation gap analysis, this study accessed the impacts of current and future (2050) climates on the potential distribution of Vitex doniana in Benin with insight on the protected areas network (PAN). The model showed a high goodness-of-fit (AUC = 0.92 ± 0.02) and a very good predictive power (TSS = 0.72 ± 0.01).