Alliance to catalog Kenyan flora

Chinese and African scientists plan to produce the first exhaustive study of nation's plant life

Kenyan and Chinese scientists say they will work hand in hand for a decade to build the African country's first exhaustive collection of studies on the nation's flora.

Scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and National Museums of Kenya jointly announced the beginning of work on Flora of Kenya recently in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province.

It is a huge project and a major sign of bilateral scientific cooperation. Kenya, which is in the tropical monsoon zone and has a diverse landscape and varied climate, has nearly 10,000 species of plants and a forest coverage rate of up to 15 percent.

According to Geoffrey Mwachala of the National Museums of Kenya, the compilation of Flora of Kenya is of great significance to basic scientific research and the conservation of natural resources in Kenya and eastern Africa.

Research on Kenyan flora dates back to 1930s, but this is the first effort of such wide scope. It is expected that doing such a comprehensive survey of Kenya's plants will take Chinese and Kenyan scientists about 10 years. It would include exploring the East African Great Rift Valley and sorting out local plant families in the form of detailed and documented studies.

Wang Qingfeng, researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Wuhan Botanical Garden and the book project leader, says the two countries will invite more than 100 botanists to help with the work.

Since 2009, Wang has been to Kenyan fields more than 20 times to collect specimens.

"It is alarmingly dangerous to collect specimens in Kenya, since wild animals attack researchers as intruders if they accidentally encroach on their territory," Wang says. "It was not unusual to be chased by buffalo and elephants in the field, and afterward it was common to invite locals to lead the way."

Researchers often travel to African grasslands and valleys for two weeks at a time. To ensure their safety, the Kenyan government often sends heavily armed police to protect them.

Researchers, however, also must contend with other issues. In November last year, as Wang and a group of researchers traveled in the central highlands of Kenya's Aberdare area, their SUV suddenly rolled over due to the slippery road conditions in the valley. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured. A rescue crew arrived two days later, Wang says.

Wang says the compilation of Flora of Kenya is a good fit with the CAS international bureau's implementation of China's "going global" development strategy, which has involved foreign scientific and technological cooperation.

"It is an unprecedented pioneering work for Chinese scientists, as the leading officials, to undertake scientific research tasks in the compilation of another country's plant annals. The next step will be carried out in fauna and remote geographic sensing research work, and will also result in published monographs."

The plan is to publish Flora of Kenya in 20 volumes, with each volume covering 400 to 500 plant species, and to publish the first volume in 2017. The first installment of the online version will be available as soon as possible.

liukun@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily Africa Weekly 12/04/2015 page22)