Wet Tropics: Africa
Background
Within the Wet Tropics Africa, Kew’s special area of expertise is the rainforests of western Cameroon, where most of our current research projects and co-operative ventures are based and have been developed. More recently Kew has strengthened its support of botanical and conservation activities elsewhere in the Wet Tropics of Africa, e.g. in Guinea-Conakry, Gabon, Central African Republic, Liberia, Ghana and Congo-Brazzaville.
The Cameroon link goes right back to 1861, when Kew’s first director, Sir William Hooker, sent a botanist, Gustav Mann, to explore and collect in the Gulf of Guinea. Since then, the herbarium at Kew has built up an unrivalled reference collection of Cameroon plants – some 60,000 which are now databased – that has provided the source material for conservation assessments, regional floras, botanical accounts, inventories, and practical guidebooks. This wealth of knowledge is now being shared with a new generation of Cameroon biologists keen to continue researching, monitoring, and conserving the extraordinary biodiversity of their rainforest heritage.
Kew’s main partner in Cameroon is the National Herbarium at Yaoundé, with which we have jointly secured project funding that has enabled the training of new staff through workshops, new computer and email access, and essential logistical support. We also have a long association with the Botanic Garden at Limbe, involving not only Kew’s botanists but horticulturists as well, helping redevelop their important nineteenth century gardens and associated herbarium.
We are delighted to acknowledge the help and support of Earthwatch for substantial funding of field trips and for enabling over 100 African botanists and conservationists from fourteen different countries to join us in training programmes in Cameroon since 1995. Additional funding for specific projects has come from the Darwin Initiative, BAT (under their partnership with Kew) and the Global Environment Facility.