
Saving Guinea's threatened trees
Kew has been awarded £270,000 to address threatened tree species conservation and restoration of their habitat in Guinea.
Threatened treesGuinea-Conakry's income depends on increasing open-cast mining by multinational companies, the largest being listed in London with investments by British taxpayers through pension funds. These initiatives and new infrastructure projects, along with continued habitat clearance for fuel and agriculture, will result in major losses of natural habitat. Guinea has numerous highly range-restricted plant species and rare vegetation types which are consequently at risk of unwitting extinction.
The existing protected area network focuses on maintaining timber resources for exploitation (Foret Classe) or protecting large animals (National Parks) or wetlands (Ramsar sites); most of the plant species of highest global priority for conservation are outside protected areas and are therefore offered little or no protection.
An effective means of conservation prioritisation is required if Guinea’s biodiversity is to be safeguarded, focusing efforts on the sites that require protection. Guinea’s capacity to do this is severely hampered by a lack of scientific expertise and infrastructure. The 2014 fifth national progress report on Guinea’s Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) commitments emphasises the need for greater capacity in the identification of Guinea’s biodiversity, and more accessible data on its threatened species and key sites for protection, as well as the need to disseminate these findings effectively to encourage community-level engagement in biodiversity protection. While considerable progress has been made with regard to Guinea’s charismatic fauna, access to data and expertise on plants remains limited.
The assessment of Important Plant Areas (IPAs) offers a practical but rigorous means of identifying site-based conservation priorities. IPAs are aligned to Target 5 of the CBD's 'Global Strategy for Plant Conservation' and so offer an important step towards fulfilling national CBD targets. Discussions between Kew and partners in Guinea have indicated enthusiasm to adopt the IPA approach and threatened species data to inform decision making on prioritisation of areas for conservation efforts.
Kew conceived and leads this project.
Darwin Initiative (DEFRA)
Rio Tinto Guinea
BID-GBIF
The Ellis Goodman Family Foundation
Couch, C., Cheek, M., Haba, P., Molmou, D., Williams, J., Magassouba, S., Doumbouya & Diallo, M.Y. (2019).
ISBN: 9781527240650.
Couch, C., Magassouba, S., Rokni, S., Williams, E., Canteiro, C. & Cheek, M. (2019).
PeerJ Preprints 7: e3451v4
Cheek, M., Magassouba, S., Howes, M.J.R., Doré, T., Doumbouya, S., Molmou, D., Grall, A., Couch, C., Larridon, I. (2018).
PeerJ 6: e4666.
Kew has been awarded £270,000 to address threatened tree species conservation and restoration of their habitat in Guinea.
Threatened treesPlant diversity in Guinea will stand a far greater chance of protection following the identification of 22 TIPAs.
Biodiversity in GuineaThe Republic of Guinea is on a mission; to boost awareness of their incredible biodiversity through a new National Flower Campaign. Kew scientist Charlotte Couch, working on the Tropical Important Plant Area’s of the Republic of Guinea project, gives us an insight into the work so far.
National flowerIn February 2016, Kew Africa and Madagascar team members Martin Cheek, Charlotte Couch and Isabel Larridon travelled to Guinea in West-Africa for fieldwork and to train local botanists.
Training in GuineaThe Darwin Project: Progress recorded during the last mission at Fouta Djallon (in French)