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COORDINATING COMMITTEE | contacts
Chair Dr Mamady Konte, Senegal;
Dr Doumma Ali, Niger; Dr Braima
James, Dr Goergen Goerg,
Dr Muaka
Toko c/o IITA, Republic of Benin;
Dr Pierre Atachi, Republic of Benin;
Dr Millicent Cobblah, Ghana; Mrs
Fatmata Kaiwa, Sierra Leone;
Dr Michael Dike, Nigeria;
Prof Isabelle Glitho, Togo;
Mr Lamin Jobe, The Gambia;
Dr Moussa Ouedraogo, Burkina Faso;
Prof Yao Tano, Cote d'Ivoire.
Status In 1998, CORAF (the Conference of Responsibles of Agricultural Research in West and Central Africa) formally endorsed the BioNET-LOOP WAFRINET. Further endorsements by individual governments were provided by Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, Senegal and Togo.
Member countries 12: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.
Context Taxonomy is fundamental to solving problems in programmes for ecologically sustainable food production, health and livelihoods, biodiversity conservation and environmental quality. However, taxonomic capacities (institutions, infrastructure, and expertise) are generally weak in West Africa. The majority of the countries lack well-preserved and documented reference collections of plants, animals, fungi and micro-organisms which are needed to support research-for-development in all sectors. Well functioning technical partnerships within and beyond the region are also rare. Within the context of these problems, West African countries strive to improve upon the current paucity of taxonomic capabilities through the WAFRINET network.
Goals and Priorities
- Rehabilitate and/or provide essential
facilities to enhance biodiversity identification, use and
management.
- Improve communications and information
sharing between partners.
- Enhance sub-regional capacity in
taxonomy.
- Strengthen collaborative linkages within
the sub-region and globally.
- Identify, develop, adapt and apply taxonomic technologies.
Current Activities
- Provision of free specimen identification
services by the IITA biodiversity centre for WAFRINET members and
non-members.
- Development of reference collections and
annotated pest lists.
- Academic training and non-formal education collection, curation/storage of arthropods and microbes, and biodiversity of vegetable agroecosystems.
Recent achievements
- In 2007, Dr. Braima James, the
BioNET-WAFRINET regional coordinator and Officer-in-charge of IITA
Benin Station and sp-IPM coordinator of the CGIAR was elected
Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, UK.
- Organization of a training course on
insects attacking vegetables cultivated in the West African
sub-region. IITA provided facilities (laboratory space, conference
room, microscopes etc.) as well as human resources during the
training.
- Organization of two regional workshops on vegetable pests in 2007 in Lomé, Togo. Participants came from Benin, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Togo and funding was provided by CORAF.
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