Activities and Disciplines

Economic Botany

PROTA

Plant Resources of Tropical Africa - UK Office

Tropical Africa is home to more than 500 million people, most of whom depend on plants for their everyday needs and well being. Thousands of plant species, gathered from the wild or cultivated, are used by people in this vast region of the African contintent.

Kew is helping PROTA to make information accessible where it is needed. Photograph PROTA Network Office Africa.

Knowledge of utility plants is indispensible for rural development and habitat management, but information is often inaccessible to users in developing countries where it is needed most.

PROTA is an interdisciplinary programme that seeks to fill this gap. Co-ordinated by Wageningen University, the programme has ten partner institutions in Africa and Europe, including Kew. It follows the success of PROSEA (Plant Resources of South-East Asia) which effectively documented the useful plants of South-East Asia (1985-2002).

PROTA's aims are simple but ambitious: to provide a reliable information source about the plant resources of tropical Africa, accessible to all who need it.

Products Species Who benefits? Contact us

Products

The PROTA Handbook is an illustrated encyclopaedia of tropical Africa's useful plants, arranged in volumes covering different uses. Search PROTABASE to freely access articles about more than 700 species from the Handbook.

The PROTA Special products series presents key findings from the Handbook in a condensed format, under headings such as 'Research gaps' and 'Conservation needs'.

PROTA welcomes contributions to the Handbook. If you would like to write for PROTA, please visit the webpage.

Species

Maize (Zea mays) is a staple cereal crop in tropical Africa. The cobs are hung up to dry before the seeds are harvested. Photograph OM Grace. Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) is one of Africa's oldest crops. Photograph Harlan Collection, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Many people's diets in Africa include protein from pulses such as chick pea (Cicer arietinum). Photograph OM Grace.

PROTA aims to document over 7,000 plant species that represent the full spectrum of plant uses in these commodity groups:

	Cereals and pulses		Vegetables
	Dyes and tannins		Ornamentals
	Forages		Fruit and nuts
	Timbers		Non-seed carbohydrates
	Auxiliary plants		Fuel plants
	Medicinal plants		Spices and condiments
	Essential oil and exudates		Vegetable oils
	Stimulants		Fibres

PROTA field projects bring information to people who use plants, such as this women's group in Yatenga Province, Burkina Faso. Photograph PROTA Network Office Africa.
Who benefits from PROTA?

PROTA's products are used by a wide audience, from students to policy makers.

PROTA-funded community projects are designed to promote the use of plants for securing livelihoods.

Calls for project proposals are posted here.

Contact us

The PROTA-UK Office at Kew focuses on

Accessing literature throughout the UK on PROTA species
Seeking individuals and institutions with expertise on the tropical African flora
Sourcing illustrations and photographs for use in review articles

To find out more, please contact:

Olwen Grace
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
TW9 3AB
Surrey, United Kingdom

Email o.grace@kew.org
Telephone +44 (0) 20 8332 5394

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