Projects

COSUkola - Conservation and Sustainable management of Garcinia kola genetic resources (2017-2019) - Funded by Agropolis Fondation (France)

Project leader: J Duminil

Scientists involved from our team: J Duminil, C Mariac, L Zekraoui, B Yogom Tientcheu

Forest products are of great socio-economic importance in sub-Saharan Africa. They contribute to a number of households need such as alimentation and medicine. Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFP) are commonly extracted from the wild. The growing demand of NTFP due to population growth and diminishing resources consequent to land uses changes require establishing sustainable management and use strategies. The biology of NTFP species is frequently insufficiently characterized, impeding the development of these strategies. This is particularly the case for the genetic diversity component of species. Our objective is to characterize the genetic diversity of Garcinia kola, a multipurpose tree species from sub-Saharan Africa, to allow conserving and sustainably managing its genetic resources across its distribution. In this aim, we will first sample G. kola individuals in Cameroon and develop and use specific molecular markers (nuclear microsatellites) to get a comprehensive map of species' genetic diversity distribution. As genetic diversity is influenced by human management practices, field trips will not only allow sampling species specimens, they will also allow leading household surveys to get a detailed understanding of human roles in shaping diversity. At a later stage, the approach will be extended to other species' occurrence countries to get a global view of species dynamic.