This project is part of the Central Africa Program of the Missouri Botanical Garden. It aims to promote the conservation of orchids in West Central Africa by increasing our knowledge on the taxonomy and the distribution of this family. The project was initiated in 1997 by the Free University of Brussels (ULB) and ECOFAC (Programme for Conservation and Rational Utilization of Forest Ecosystems in Central Africa, EC). Initially, it focussed on the orchids of Sao Tome. The area under study has been expanded to include Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon and Sao Tome. This research is carries out in collaboration with the National Herbarium of Belgium, ULB, the University of Wageningen, the University of Yaoundé I in Cameroon, the National Herbarium of Gabon, the National Herbarium of Guinea (INDEFOR), the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Conservation International (CI) and the Institut de Recherche en Ecologie Tropicale (IRET, Gabon).
In order to collect the flowered orchids and thus identify them, we set up
a network of shadehouses which allow ex situ orchid culture. At the moment,
this network is made up of 5 shadehouses situated in Gabon, São Tomé
and Cameroon. The shadehouse network is an efficient way to promote ex situ
conservation of orchids.
(See map)
Since the beginning of our project, more than 8000 orchid samples were put in cultivation in the shadehouses network built in 7 sites in São Tomé and Príncipe, Gabon, Cameroon, and Equatorial Guinea. This method has yielded a collecting of 4400 fertile specimens. These samples represent nearly 400 taxa, of which 35 are new.
 |
|
 |
|
| ©
1995- Missouri Botanical Garden, All Rights Reserved P.O. Box 299, St. Louis, MO 63166-0299 314-577-5100 |