Breakthrough in providing information on African acacias |
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| African acacias - information resources | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
A large information gap on valuable acacia trees has recently been filled. Monographs, an annotated bibliography and synthesis of available information, and a manual on the identity, site requirements, seed sources, management, and uses of the six most important African acacia species plus six others from Zimbabwe and neighbouring countries, have been produced. A synopsis containing details of the species' names, distribution, botanical descriptions, ecology and uses, plus drawings, is in the final production stage. Acacia trees provide a wide range of products and services to Africans: fuelwood, fodder, shelter, rehabilitating degraded soils, and increasing productivity of non-arable land. Native acacias are preferred, as exotic trees don't take well to the harsh conditions, but their use has been limited through a lack of information for forestry technical officers and botanists in easily accessible formats. Project Ref: FRP11: Research Programmes: Forestry Research Programme Relevant Research Projects:
The projects collaborated with the following African organisations:
However, the Zimbabwe-focus of the collaboration belies the pan-African importance and relevance of the acacias. Most botanical and forestry organisations across Africa would benefit from the provision of detailed information about Acacia.
The acacia is one of the iconic trees of the African landscape and has the potential to provide a wide-range of resources for human use, e.g., fuelwood, fodder and shelter, rehabilitation of degraded land and increase in productivity of non-arable land. Native Acacia species are to be preferred in the African landscape since exotic trees are often difficult to establish in harsh conditions and Acacia species have diverse properties, e.g., growth rates, wood densities and ecological adaptation. However, the effective utilisation of Acacia species is limited through the lack of information available in easily utilised formats. For example, information on African acacias is often 'locked away' in the libraries and archives of former colonial powers or there is no easily available resource to enable identification of Acacia species. A series of outputs have been produced from this project: 1. A monograph on Faidherbia albida, include an annotated bibliography and synthesis of all available published and unpublished information. 2. A monograph on Acacia senegal include a history and analysis of the acacia gum trade and an assessment of the prospects for commercial production from A. senegal and other Acacia species. 3. A manual on the identity, ecology, site requirements, seed sources, silviculture management and uses of the six most important Acacia species (A. erioloba, A. karroo, A. nilotica, A. tortilis, A. senegal, Faidherbia albida) plus six other important species from Zimbabwe and surrounding countries. 4. A conspectus on all African acacias with details of nomenclature, distribution, botanical description, botanical drawings and notes on the ecology and uses of each species (this output is in the final production stages). Outputs 1-3 are aimed at technical officers in research and forestry organisations, whilst output 4 is aimed at herbarium- and field-based botanists. The outputs were complemented by an image-based African acacia resource through the Virtual Field Herbarium (VFH; project R7367) and a field guide to Acacia species of Zimbabwe and species monographs on A. erioloba, A. karroo, A. nilotica and A. tortilis. The VFH output was designed to be a widely useful as possible; users being able to access information at a variety of different levels. The field guides was designed for use by technical officers and field botanists, whilst the species monographs were aimed primarily at technical officers. Where appropriate, it would be highly beneficial to link up with the FRP-funded BRAHMS and VFH projects for future implementation or promotion of these outputs.
The focus was on as Acacia as multipurpose trees. However, as major components of African ecosystems (especially in east, southern and South Africa) these outputs may have knock benefits for NTFPs, e.g., gum. The process also provides a model of the amount of information that is available about African tree species but that is unable in a useful form. This model could be applied to many other plant species.
The outputs are about access to information presented in formats are greatest value to the user group at which they are aimed. Many of these outputs have been made available as Tropical Forestry Papers and therefore getting this available on the web would be a high priority. Furthermore, there are natural links to other Oxford Forestry-related projects such as BRAHMS and the VFH and therefore these form a de facto cluster. Other natural links could be seen to programmes that have been funded under the Darwin Initiative and also projects such as the Mellon-funded African Plants Initiative and South African biodiversity initiatives. There is a greater need for these outputs to be fed-down beyond the technical officer and for experiences to be fed-up so that these can be reflected in the outputs. Local experiences of the utilisation of particular Acacia species are very difficult to assess. The greatest scope for access to the information is through the democracy of the web and the integration with BRAHMS-VFH to make all of these data widely available.
How the outputs were validated: All of the outputs were peer-reviewed for the scientific quality and accuracy of the information. Outputs 1 and 2 followed the familiar format of earlier Acacia species monographs published as Tropical Forestry Papers. There has been a continual demand for all of the publications as seen through the continual request for copies of the publications by researchers working in Africa. Output 3 was the result of an active collaboration with Zimbabwean foresters interested in acacia management. All of the information was validated on the basis of their experiences of growing the trees. Output 4 has yet top appear but it is anticipated that this will have the widest impact given that there is no single, readily-available resource to the identification of African Acacia species. Where the Outputs were Validated: Outputs from the project have been supplied to at least 250 organisations/ individuals throughout Africa (West, East, Southern and South) plus relevant organisations in Europe. These outputs were supplied between 2003 and 2005. Peer review of the outputs was undertaken by appropriate UK and African experts on Acacia in year before publication of the outputs. The majority of the experts were technical or academic. Who are the Users? Reference works, such as the Outputs of this project, are rarely quoted by users but presumably they are available to users in the organisations to which they were sent. The current situation in Zimbabwe, one of the main areas involved in this project means that these works are probably currently under utilised. However, the qualities of the data the Outputs contain mean that they will retain their value into the future. The Acacia material on the VFH website has many and varied browsers, as revealed by the server log of visitors, although we obviously cannot know what users make of these materials. The potential value of Acacia outputs is revealed by the uptake of the results from project R6550 which was aimed at promoting, managing and increasing the productivity of African acacias in semi-arid production systems. These results have been taken up by forestry research institutions, extension services, NGOs and IARCs. Where the outputs have been used: See 12. The VFH Acacia site is the main item currently in use and that is apparently global. In Africa this is probably limited to the better resourced capital cities and well resources research organisations. The current situation in Zimbabwe appears to be limiting direct use of the results. Scale of Current Use: See 12. In the case of R6550 there was keen interest in the seed material and post-project the Zimbabwe Forestry Commission funded maintenance and continued assessment of the Acacia trials and management for seed production. Whether this is continuing today has not been ascertained. Policy and Institutional Structures, and Key Components for Success: DFID's Forest Research Programme was very helpful, in that they assisted the project, especially the encouragement of promotion and dissemination pathways. However, it is crucial that DFID continues to be aware of the importance of biodiversity to livelihoods and poverty alleviation. It can be argued that biodiversity issues are of greater importance to the livelihoods of rural Africans than they are to Europeans, especially in the teeth of the unpredictable consequences of environmental change. The Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) has ensured that biodiversity issues have been kept high on government and NGO agendas. One would have hoped that the Commission for Africa would have done a similar thing for livelihood issues. In terms of capacity strengthening, support for biodiversity-related institutions is often short-term, and the limited resources that they require to operate are often at a premium. Good work has been done in the UK through the Darwin Initiative. However, globally, promoting of biodiversity in relation to poverty alleviation is often in spite, rather than because, of short-term institutional priorities. Utilisation of biodiversity information requires long-term stability. Lessons Learned and Uptake Pathways Promotion of Outputs: Promotion is currently passive. Outputs are advertised on websites and requests for them are met; there is a steady trickle of such requests. The main route for promotion of the project outputs in the future in through a link between BRAHMS and the VFH. Both of these routes are becoming more widely known and relied upon. Potential Barriers Preventing Adoption of Outputs: Some of the biggest issues are likely to be the absence of appropriate pathways by which the results of the outputs can be fed-down to the ultimate beneficiaries, e.g., absence of people at the institutional level with engage with these groups. Obviously all of these outputs require the ability to read English; this is potential barrier at two levels. In the case of web-based resources access to fast internet access, or internet access at all is likely to be a severe limitation. How to Overcome Barriers to Adoption of Outputs: Potentially one of the best ways to remove/reduce barriers would be the promotion of activities in national botanical institutions that would feed output results down to users, either through direct contact (the best way) or the translation of appropriate materials into local languages. However, for such activities to work there needs to be sustained, long-term funding. Furthermore, links needs to be promoted between institutions across Africa and globally. Institutionally, there needs to be means by which individuals involved in these tasks are suitably rewarded. Lessons Learned: The outputs that we have developed are mainly aimed at institutional workers. It is these organisations that have responsibilities for making sure that the outputs are made available to poor people. See 18. Direct and Indirect Environmental Benefits: The wise management of biodiversity requires access to knowledge; the more information that is available the greater the chance resources will be sustained into the future. The ability to be able to identify Acacia species means that more precise knowledge of distributions and properties will be available. We know for example that different Acacia species support different groups of animals and respond to different management strategies in different ways. Reliable identification should be at the core of any programme to conserve and sustainably utilise a species. Adverse Environmental Impacts: The greatest environmental danger is that indiscriminate planting of Acacia species may lead them to become weedy and hence invade landscapes. However, some might view this an acceptable risk in marginal lands. Relevant Research Projects,
with links to the
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For relevant research projects, with links to further information Geographical regions included: Africa, Europe, Zimbabwe,  Target Audiences for this content:Forest-dependent poor, |
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