Many tropical forest trees have recalcitrant seeds that make them difficult to handle and impedes their use. IPGRI, as part of a global project in collaboration with DFSC has been undertaking a project on effective conservation and use of recalcitrant and intermediate tropical forest tree seeds under the thematic project on Forestry C07E since 1996. 

In the SSA region the participating partners include Kenya Forestry Research Institute (KEFRI), Centre National de Semences Forestieres of Burkina Faso (CNSF), National Tree Seed Project of Tanzania (NTSP), the Institut Senegalais de Recherche Agronomique (ISRA) Senegal, the Forestry Research Institute of Malawi (FRIM), and the Forestry Commission in Zimbabwe. These research institutes are developing and implementing optimal seed handling and storage methods for seeds with expected recalcitrant/intermediate behaviour. A screening protocol for desiccation tolerance has been developed and is being used to test more than 40 species of tropical forest species, including, from the SSA region: Cordyla pinnata, Dovyalis caffra, Fagara xanthoxyloides, Kigelia africana, Lophira lanceolata, Melia azedarach, Pentadesma butyracea, Strychnos cocculoides, Syzygium cuminii, S.guineense, Vitellaria paradoxa, Warbugia salustris and Ximenia americana.

A regional training workshop for the African partners was organized joint between IPGRI, DFSC and KEFRI and was hosted at the KEFRI headquarters in Muguga, Kenya from 27 to31 March 2000. The main purpose of the workshop was to train and discuss the procedures of the screening protocol for determining the desiccation tolerance and storage behavior of tropical forest tree seeds. Two participants from each country were invited including the responsible scientist and the lab technician who carries out the desiccation work.

The project also produces two newsletters annually as a means of communicating the results of the screening work to various partners in the recalcitrant tree seed network. So far 8 Newsletters have been produced and the last three newsletter can be accessed at the DFSC Website www.dfsc.dk