Publication of 2003 AETFAT proceedings 
(project completed 2006)

Publication of the proceedings of the 17th Congress of the Association pour l'Etude Taxonomique de la Flore d'Afrique Tropicale, held in Addis Ababa in 2003.

The Proceedings of the 2003 AETFAT Congress have been edited and published at RBG Kew - some seventy papers in almost 800 pages of text.

In 2003 the 17th Congress of the Association for the Taxonomic Study of the Flora of Tropical Africa (AETFAT) took place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The theme of this Congress was 'Taxonomy and ecology of African plants and their conservation and sustainable use'. In all, 104 papers and posters were presented of which 60 have been included in the Proceedings. The Introduction to the Proceedings reflects the need to concentrate efforts to conserve the biodiversity of the world especially Africa, and to use the resources in a sustainable manner. Nine main topics (see contents below) which formed the nine Symposia at the Congress show the state of knowledge and research in different fields of African botany from pure taxonomy, phytogeography, ecology and  conservation to implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity in Africa. More than half of the papers in the Proceedings originate from research carried out in African institutes. Twelve papers have RBG Kew authors.

The proceedings were published in 2006 by Kew Publishing:

• Ghazanfar, S.A. & Beentje, H.J. (2006). Taxonomy and ecology of African plants, their conservation and sustainable use. Proccedings of the 17th AETFAT Congress, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. London: Kew Publishing. 802 pp