African Biodiversity

In May 2004, the Alexander Koenig Zoological Research Museum hosted the Fifth International Symposium on Tropical Biology. This series was established at the ZFMK in the early 1980s, and has variably focused on systematics and ecology of tropical organisms, with an emphasis on Africa. Previous volumes are those edited by Schuchmann (1985), Peters and Hutterer (1990), Ulrich (1997), and Rheinwald (2000). The symposium in 2004 was organized by the Entomology Department under the direction of Michael Schmitt. The intention was to focus on Africa rather than on a particular taxon, and to highlight biodiversity at all levels ranging from molecules to ecosystems. This focus was timely partly because of the currently running BIOTA Africa programmes (BIOdiversity Monitoring Transect Analysis in Africa). BIOTA is an interdisciplinary research project focusing on sustainable use and conservation of biodiversity in Africa (http://www.biote-africa.de). Session titles were Biogeography and Speciation Processes, Phylogenetic Patterns and Systematics, Diversity Declines and Conservation, and Applied Biodiversity Informatics. Each session was opened by an invited speaker, and all together 77 lectures and 59 posters were presented. There were over 200 participants and it was gratifying to us to meet colleagues from 26 nations, including Russia, Ukraine, Japan, USA, and ten African countries. We thank all participants for their valuable contributions.

The proceedings of the Pan Africa Chemistry Network Biodiversity Conference which connected African scientists and provides a valuable overview of biodiversity in Africa.

Conservation Biology in Sub-Saharan Africa comprehensively explores the challenges and potential solutions to key conservation issues in Sub-Saharan Africa. Easy to read, this lucid and accessible textbook includes fifteen chapters that cover a full range of conservation topics, including threats to biodiversity, environmental laws, and protected areas management, as well as related topics such as sustainability, poverty, and human-wildlife conflict. This rich resource also includes a background discussion of what conservation biology is, a wide range of theoretical approaches to the subject, and concrete examples of conservation practice in specific African contexts. Strategies are outlined to protect biodiversity whilst promoting economic development in the region. Boxes covering specific themes written by scientists who live and work throughout the region are included in each chapter, together with recommended readings and suggested discussion topics. Each chapter also includes an extensive bibliography. Conservation Biology in Sub-Saharan Africa provides the most up-to-date study in the field. It is an essential resource, available on-line without charge, for undergraduate and graduate students, as well as a handy guide for professionals working to stop the rapid loss of biodiversity in Sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere.

This is the third volume in the new multi-volume set, Global Biodiversity. Each volume in this series covers the biodiversity of a selection of nations in particular regions of the world. The volumes discuss and summarize the available information on both wild and cultivated plants, wild and domesticated animals, and the variety of microbes of the different nations. This volume looks at the biodiversity of selected countries of Africa, providing a rich resource of biodiversity information on countries in different parts of Africa, including: Libya, Morocco, and Egypt in North Africa countries on the east coast, including Gabon, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Togo, Senegal land-locked countries, including Burkina Faso and Zambia, countries on the west coast, including Sudan, Tanzania and South Africa With chapters written by research scientists and conservationists, the book covers geographical status, ecosystem diversity, species diversity, genetic diversity, and conservation efforts in each selected country. The authors provide statistical data on plants, animals, and microbes of that country along with genetic diversity with the focus on crop plants/cultivated plants and domesticated animals and their wild relatives. Endangered plants and animals and protected areas are discussed. Other volumes in this series include coverage of selected countries in Asia, Europe, the Americas, and Australia.

The rain forests of West Africa have been designated as one of the world's hotspots of biodiversity. They extend from Ghana to Senegal and are referred to as the Upper Guinean forests. Because of their isolated position, they harbour a large number of rare and endemic animal and plant species.This book focuses on the biodiversity and ecology of these forests. It analyses the factors that give rise to biodiversity and structure tropical plant communities. It also includes an atlas with ecological profiles of rare plant species and large timber species.

This edited work brings out a comprehensive collection of information on Potentials, Threats and Conservation of Biodiversity in Africa. The main focus of this book is to address the sustainability of Biodiversity of Africa. Biodiversity are organisms that typically have life and possess the characteristics of living things. The biodiversity is being affected by human activities as well as natural effects. This in turn is affecting the uses of biodiversity which are mainly food and medicine. Therefore it will be useful to point possible means of conserving biodiversity of African so as to enhance the sustainability of their uses especially in Africa. This book is of interest and useful to biodiversity experts, policy makers, conservationists and industries interested in biodiversity conservation of native flora and fauna in the area. It will also be useful to environmental and agricultural scientists, foresters, horticulturists, ecologists, and valuable source of reference to the relevant researchers and students (undergraduate and Post graduate) in the region.

The Second International Symposium on the East African Lakes was held from 10-15 January 2000 at Club Makokola on the southern shore of Lake Malawi. The symposium was organized by the International Decade for the East African Lakes (IDEAL), a research consortium of African, European and North American scientists interested in promoting the investigations of African Great Lakes as archives of environmental and climatic dynamics. Over one hundred African, European and North American scientists with special expertise in the tropical lakes participated in the symposium which featured compelling presentations on the limnology, climatology, palaeoclimatology and biodiversity of the East African Lakes. It is their papers that comprise this book. The large lakes of East Africa are important natural resources that are heavily utilized by their bordering countries for transportation, water supply, fisheries, waste disposal, recreation and tourism. The lakes are unique in many ways: they are sensitive to climatic change and their circulation dynamics, water-column chemistry and biological complexity differ significantly from large lakes at higher latitudes; they have long, continuous, high resolution records of past climatic change; and they have rich and diverse populations of endemic organisms. These unique properties and the significance of the palaeolimnological records demand and attract research interest from around the world.