Several factors have conspired in recent years to threaten the genetic resources on forests. High demand for timber is an obvious one.

But plunging prices for commodities on world markets can hasten clear-felling as farmers try to bring more land into production. Demand for non-timber products — for example medicines — targets particular species. As a result forests are shrinking across sub-Saharan Africa, and as the trees vanish so do the resources and ecological services they provide.

After a series of planning meetings in the region, in 1998 IPGRI, FAO and partners established SAFORGEN, the Sub-Saharan Africa Forest Genetic Resources Network. The objectives of SAFORGEN are:

to strengthen institutional frameworks and national programmes for forest genetic resources 
to intensify co-operation among countries for forest genetic resources conservation and use
to develop methodologies and tools for the conservation and sustainable use of forest genetic resources.

Fifteen countries have endorsed the programme to date and appointed national co-ordinators. IPGRI manages the Secretariat of SAFORGEN, which is based in its sub-Regional office in Benin, and which provides support.

SAFORGEN aims to build capacity across the region and to facilitate the spread of best practices. Training workshops are an important tool to achieve this. Most recently, a workshop for English-speaking countries of sub-Saharan Africa, held in Nairobi, organized by SAFORGEN/IPGRI and several partners, witnessed 36 participants from 18 countries gather to exchange experiences. Many expressed the concern that poverty and heavy demand for forest raw materials made it difficult to implement policies designed to conserve forest genetic resources. The immediate needs of people may be more pressing than long-term goals.

Participants talked about ways of strengthening national programmes and regional collaborations. They also put forward recommendations for future developments in SAFORGEN, which are being carried through.

For example, SAFORGEN is developing sub-networks focused on particular types of resource. The most advanced at the moment is the Medicinal Tree Species Network. The conservation of medicinal trees poses particular challenges, especially as demand increases outside the local area. Work by ICRAF (the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry) has shown how over exploitation of Prunus africana for its bark, from which a treatment for cancer is derived, has affected this species right across Africa. But while many African scientists have been working on Prunus africana and other medically important tree species, there has not been a mechanism to prevent the duplication of effort. One goal of the Medicinal Tree Species Network will be to enhance collaboration. Building on the early success of the Medicinal Tree Species Network, SAFORGEN will be exploring opportunities for a similar network for food trees in 2001 and timber and fibre in future.

Preserving genetic resources requires conservation in situ and ex situ. A central dilemma is to balance the use of a resource, which may destroy it, with conservation, which may deny people the use of that resource. SAFORGEN is working with Benin, Kenya and Togo to explore different conservation options that forest managers can implement on the ground.

Banking seeds can be difficult because 30–40% of forest trees produce seeds that are said to be intermediate or recalcitrant: that is, they do not withstand the drying essential for long-term storage. IPGRI is working with the Danida Forest Seed Centre on a global research project to improve the effective conservation of such seeds. In Sub-Saharan Africa several partners have worked together to improve seed handling and storage methods. They have jointly developed a screening protocol that is being used to test many African species to see how they respond to new methods of storage.

A project supported by the United Nations Environment Programme is beginning to target key species that SAFORGEN has identified as especially important. Benin, Kenya and Togo have each chosen two species as models. In Benin the focus is on two species that mainly provide fodder for livestock, Khaya senegalensis and Afzelia africana. Kenya has chosen two food trees, Tamarindus indica and Dialium orientale. In Togo partners are looking at Alstonia boonei and Nauclea latifolia, both species with proven medicinal effects.

Much survey work has already been completed, with studies in each country appropriate to the conditions and requirements there. In each case, the objectives of the project are: to assess threats; to evaluate genetic diversity and genetic erosion; and to come up with suitable strategies to enhance conservation and use. A final workshop is due to take place later in 2001.

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