Conservation and community-based wise use of African useful plants

Project Gist

Conservation of commercial African plant species depends on understanding their ecology and economy

Keywords

Plant use, Fair trade, Ethnobiology, Tropical ecology, Area studies

Background and Purpose

Products derived from African plants, including coffee, palm oil, and aromatic oils, are commonplace around the world. However, ecological and social issues, such as ecosystem degradation, overharvesting, social disorder, and land grabbing, afflict areas of Africa where these plants are indigenous. We investigated the ecosystems and rural landscapes that have produced these widely used African plants and document the local knowledge of their historical use in an effort to increases the sustainability of these valuable resources.

Project Achievements

Roughly 10 publications and 20 oral and poster presentations at international conferences have resulted from this project. We organized two international symposia, one in Paris and the other in Kyoto, and successfully formed a human resource network with Guinean, Ethiopian, Malagasy, French, American, and Japanese colleagues. This network and our contribution to its formation exemplify the purpose and aims of the Kyoto University General Memoranda for Academic Cooperation and Exchange with the University of Antananarivo and the University of Florida.

Future Prospects

Project members successfully obtained two new grants for related research topics from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) during the project period. We plan to submit larger proposals this year to broaden the scope of the current project. We also plan to propose a human resource development project that will support young African and international researchers in the JSPS Core-to-Core Program.

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Joint Research/Academic Institutions Abroad

Addis Ababa University, University of Antananarivo, School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, World Agroforestry Centre, University of Florida, Bossou Environmental Research Institute

Principal Investigator