Drylands: Africa
Background
Against a background of continuing environmental degradation in the world's arid and semi-arid regions, and the recognition that a better understanding of such regions' plant diversity is fundamental to its conservation and sustainable use, and has great potential for poverty alleviation, drylands were chosen as one of the main foci for Kew's scientific work. The geographical focus on Africa builds on:
· the extensive (c. 1.5 million) collections of dryland African specimens held in the Kew Herbarium, which allows accurate identification of plant material from this biome;
· the development since 1981 of the Survey of Economic Plants for Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (SEPASAL) database;
· the dryland seed collecting of the Seed Bank;
· and on the South African DNA bank established at SANBI in partnership with Kew (Darwin Initiative).
Kew’s two major Flora projects in southern and eastern Africa, Flora Zambesiaca and Flora of Tropical East Africa, incorporate large areas of drylands.
African drylands are one of the main foci of the Millennium Seed Bank, and are also well represented in the living and economic botany collections. Kew employs around 20 people who spend all or most of their time working with the flora of the S and E Africa region. The institute-wide Drylands Africa Group meets regularly to discuss common interests and encourage collaboration.