Today, Thursday 11 December 2008 the PROTA (Plant Resources of Tropical Africa) Foundation presented two new books, on Timbers and Medicinal Plants of Tropical Africa, and launched the freely accessible extended PROTA web database on African Useful Plants. This information is of great importance for the bio-based economies of the 47 countries of tropical Africa. First copies were presented by the Co-chair of the PROTA Board of Trustees, Dr. Z.L.K. Magombo from Malawi, to representatives of PROTA’s donors and the international editorial teams.
The two new books on timbers and medical plants bridge a knowledge gap. None of the 47 countries in tropical Africa has a complete overview of its useful plant diversity, whereas diversity is essential to counteract current and future food, energy and environmental crises: diversity is the treasurer of the future, because it constitutes the gene pool from which man can select new food, feed, medicinal and energy crops in a changing world or adapt existing crops to changing conditions such as the climate.
PROTA web database
The PROTA Foundation recently added nearly 700 review articles on over 1,500 African timber species and medicinal plants to its information system which contains already extensive accounts on cereals & pulses, vegetables, dyes & tannins and vegetable oils. This detailed information on well-known timbers such as African mahogany and okoumé and lesser-known timber species is indispensable for achieving sustainable forest management; the detailed knowledge on the medicinal plants is indispensable for developing safe and affordable plant-based medicines. Ultimately information on all 7,000 useful plants will be available. The PROTA web database is freely accessible, and the information is also cheaply available in books and CD-Roms. They are an indispensable tool for decision makers in government, industry, research, education, vocational training and rural development.
Among the approximately 7,000 plant species used by man in tropical Africa for food, clothing, shelter, energy, medicines and animal feed, a mere 100–200 are cultivated on a large scale, actually providing the bulk of the urban needs. The others are only known by small farmers, pastoralists, forest dwellers, medicine men/women and rural housewives, and are usually underdeveloped as a consequence of ignorance by decision makers in government and industry, as well as in research, education and rural development.
PROTA
The aim of the international programme PROTA, involving 11 African, European and South-East Asian scientific institutions and hundreds of scientists worldwide, is to make a complete overview of the state of knowledge on the 7,000 African useful plants, and to identify the 500 most promising ones: from a ‘green’ list of 7,000 useful plants to a ‘bright green’ list of 500 promising crop plants for the immediate future.