Plant Resources of Tropical Africa

Plant Resources of Tropical Africa, known by its acronym PROTA, is a retired NGO and interdisciplinary documentation programme active between 2000 and 2013. PROTA produced a large database and various publications about Africa's useful plants.

Plant Resources of Tropical Africa Foundation (PROTA)
Formation2000
Founded atWageningen University
Dissolved2013
Type
    • Documentation program
    • NGO
Legal statusFoundation
PurposeTo improve access to information about useful plants in Africa
Headquarters
Region
Tropical Africa
Products
    • PROTA Encyclopedia Series
    • PROTA Recommends Book Series
    • PROTA4U Database
FieldsEthnobotany, Botany, Anthropology, African Studies, Horticulture, Forestry, International Development
Official language
English, French
Key people
    • J.S. Siemonsma (Program Director)
    • R.H. Lemmens (General Editor)
    • L.P. Oyen (General Editor)
    • G.H. Schmelzer (Editor)
    • C.H. Bosch (Editor)
    • M. Brink (Editor)
    • A. de Ruijter (Editor)
    • P.C. Jansen (Editor)
    • E.A. Boer (Photo Editor)
    • T.H. Tan (Databank Manager)
    • P.M. Parker (Database Creator)
    • E.A. Omino (Africa/Kenya)
    • S. Mbadinga (Gabon)
    • J.S. Kaboggoza (Uganda)
    • S. Rapanarivo (Madagascar)
    • Z.L. Magombo (Malawi)
    • J.R. Cobbinah (Ghana)
    • M. Ouédraogo (Burkina Faso)
    • M. Honadia (Burkina Faso)
    • M. Chauvet (France)
    • S.D. Davis (UK)
AffiliationsUniversity of Wageningen
Websitehttps://www.prota4u.org/database/

Purpose

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PROTA was concerned with increasing accessibility to traditional knowledge and scientific information about many types of African plants including: dyes & tannins, fibers, medicinal plants, stimulants, tropical timbers, vegetables, tubers (carbohydrates), oil seeds, ornamental plants, forage plants, and cereals. PROTA supported the sustainable use of these useful plants to preserve culture, reduce poverty and hunger, and respond to climate change. To this end, PROTA's overall goal was synthesize diverse, published information for approximately 8,000 plants used in tropical Africa, then make it widely accessible through an online database and various book publications. In other words, PROTA was dedicated to making the useful plant biodiversity of tropical Africa better-known and respected.[1][2]

PROTA's database and various publications are considered unique in their epistemological approach because they were compiled as much from obscure publications as from peer-reviewed and popular literature, gathered throughout Africa and Europe.[3] In this way PROTA publications include Africa-centered references and perspectives, which is a major focus of the broader discipline of African studies. PROTA also was an international NGO registered in Nairobi, Kenya that used information from its publications to structure a number of community projects involving over 800 farmers in Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Kenya, and Madagascar.[1][4]

Some of PROTA's other goals included:[5][6]

  • to promote the sustainable use of plants to the public and private sectors
  • to facilitate socially inclusive, collaborative research about African plants from experts in Africa and elsewhere
  • to make research about African plants more accessible
  • to support intellectual property rights related to the commercial use of African plants
  • to help graduate students and researchers identify research gaps
  • to provide research-driven educational materials to vocational and farmer education programs in Africa

Current status

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Funding

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PROTA retired in 2013 while facing large operational costs after its funding expired. At the point of its retirement, about 50% of PROTA's encyclopedia series was complete. During its operation, PROTA received funds from the European Union's Directorate-General for International Partnerships,[7] Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Netherlands Ministry of Agriculture, Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, Wageningen University,[8] COFRA Foundation,[9] International Tropical Timber Organization,[10] and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Since the program's retirement there have been ongoing efforts to fundraise and preserve PROTA's various publications and online database.[11]

Preservation

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As of 2022, the PROTA database Prota4U is still online in an archive-like capacity at Wageningen University with articles written in English and French. Information in the PROTA database can also be accessed at the website Pl@ntUse–though in a different format. As of 2019, Prota4U had about 1,500 daily visitors and 500,000 unique visitors each year.[11] All of the PROTA's encyclopedia volumes have been digitized and are available for free as Open access publications from the Wageningen University library. It is uncertain how much of the PROTA Recommends Series has been digitized.

Partners

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The programme operated through an international network of institutional partners and collaborators of the PROTA Foundation. PROTA had representatives in 20 African countries and dual headquarters in Wageningen, Netherlands and Nairobi, Kenya. PROTA also had regional offices with institutional partners in Burkina Faso, France, Gabon, Ghana, Madagascar, Malawi, Uganda, and the United Kingdom.[12] In Wageningen, PROTA also partnered with the EU funded, Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) and the now-retired Agromisa Foundation to help distribute its various publications. Agromisa and PROTA were considered suitable partners because they were both committed to bridging the gap between scientific knowledge and traditional knowledge and were open access publishers of books with practical information about sustainable agriculture for small-farmers in Africa.[13]

PROTA Institutional Partners
Affiliation Institution Country
Francophone Regional Office Centre National de Semences Forestieres Burkina Faso
France Country Office Acropolis International France
Central Africa Regional Office Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique et Technologique Gabon
West Africa Regional Office Forestry Research Institute of Ghana Ghana
Indian Ocean Islands Regional Office Parc Botanique et Zoologique de Tsimbazaza Madagascar
Southern Africa Regional Office National Herbarium and Botanical Gardens of Malawi Malawi
East Africa Regional Office Makerere University Uganda
UK Country Office Kew Gardens United Kingdom
Europe Headquarters Wageningen University Netherlands
Africa Headquarters World Agroforestry Centre Kenya

Publications

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PROTA Handbook Encyclopedia Series

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Description

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The PROTA Handbook Series is a large illustrated encyclopedia series of utility plant species found in Tropical Africa. PROTA's retirement in 2013 made it unfeasible to complete the encyclopedia series, therefore only 9 volumes were ever published. In 2002, the series was projected to contain 16 volumes with entires for 7,000-8000 species. It was estimated that the series would include 2,500 botanical line drawings, and 2,500 species distribution maps in about 11,000 pages.[14] The existing PROTA encyclopedia volumes been described metaphorically in the Kew Bulletin as a treasure trove of information.[15] The Food and Agriculture Organization and Biodiversity International described PROTA 2: Vegetables as a detailed collection of ethnobotanical knowledge.[16] Some PROTA encyclopedias have received more than 376 citations.[17] PROTA Encyclopedia editors included individuals such as G.J. Grubben, who had led projects commissioned by the United Nations International Board for Plant Genetic Resources; and Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, a biodiversity scientist who later became the President of Mauritius.[18] Though organized by species according to conventional botanical nomenclature, PROTA encyclopedias also include vernacular names in major African languages such as Swahili where information was available.[12] PROTA continued to distribute its encyclopedias after the organization's retirement. As of 2019, than 30,000 PROTA encyclopedias had been printed in English and French and were distributed widely with the help of the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) and the now-retired Agromisa Foundation. Several PROTA encyclopedias are also available at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Headquarters' Library in Switzerland.[19]

Content

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Species articles in the PROTA encyclopedia series were written by hundreds of authors from around the world and in Africa, and cover a range of information including:[20][12][21]

  • plant uses
  • geographic distribution by African country
  • cultivation information
  • wild-collection data
  • production and international trade data
  • chemical properties
  • botanical characteristics
  • ecological information
  • conservation status

Digitization status

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Currently, all published PROTA encyclopedias volumes have been digitized and are available as Open access publications from the Wageningen University library.[22] Several encyclopedias in the series were planned but not started at the time of PROTA's retirement in 2013.

PROTA Encyclopedia Series
Title Status Year Editors Language
PROTA 1: Cereals and pulses Published 2006 Brink, M. and Belay, G. English, French
PROTA 2: Vegetables Published 2004 Grubben, G.J. and Denton, O.A.
PROTA 3: Dyes and tannins Published 2005 Jansen, P.C. and Cardon, D.
PROTA 4: Ornamentals Planned
PROTA 5: Forages Planned
PROTA 6: Fruits Planned
PROTA 7(1): Timbers Published 2008 Louppe D., Oteng-Amoaka A.A. and Brink, M.
PROTA 7(2): Timbers Published 2012 Lemmens, R., Louppe, D., Oteng-Amoako, A.A.
PROTA 8: Carbohydrates Planned
PROTA 9: Auxiliary plants Planned
PROTA 10: Fuel plants Planned
PROTA 11(1): Medicinal plants Published 2008 Schmelzer, G.H. and Ameenah Gurib-Fakim
PROTA 11(2): Medicinal plants Published 2013 Schmelzer, G.H. and Ameenah Gurib-Fakim
PROTA 12: Spices and condiments Planned
PROTA 13: Essential oils and exudates Planned
PROTA 14: Vegetable oils Published 2007 van der Vossen, H.A. and Mkamilo, G.S.
PROTA 15: Stimulants Planned
PROTA 16: Fibres Published 2012 Brink, M. and Achigan-Dako, E.G.

PROTA Recommends Series

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Other PROTA Publications

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Other PROTA Publications
Title Status Year Digitized Editors Language
Plant Resources of Tropical Africa: Precursor Published 2002   Yes Oyen, L.P.A. and Lemmens, R.H.M.J. English, French
PROTA: Basic list of species and commodity groupings 2002   Yes Bosch, C.H.
PROTA: Updated list of species and commodity groupings 2010   Yes Chauvet, M.
Promising African Plants: A Selection from the PROTA Programme 2010   Yes
Proceedings of the First PROTA International Workshop 2002   No
PROTA: African Ornamentals: Proposals and Examples 2011   No

Reception

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PROTA2: Vegetables

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  • According to Google Scholar PROTA 2: Vegetables has been widely cited, receiving more than 367 citations as of October, 2022.[17]
  • Nigerian ethnobotanists reported in 2004 that PROTA 2: Vegetables included contributions from over 100 authors and detailed cultivation practices for 280 indigenous vegetables.[21]
  • A 2004 report from the University Of Ile-Ife in Nigeria referenced PROTA 2: Vegetables to emphasize the importance of indigenous vegetables such as Solanum macrocarpon and Telfairia occidentalis in providing employment opportunities in informal economies and in incorporating indigenous vegetables into plant breeding programs.[21]
  • A 2004 book review in the Kew Bulletin regarded PROTA 2: Vegetables as being well cited, with over 1500 references.[23]
  • A 2004 book review in the Nordic Journal of Botany commented that PROTA 2: Vegetables "should be found on the bookshelves of every institution dealing with tropical botany, nutrition, health, and agriculture" [24]
  • A 2004 book review from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and Biodiversity International said that PROTA 2: Vegetables brought needed addition to literature about vegetable resources in Africa, and that many of the vegetables described in the volume are unique to Africa. The book review also commented that PROTA2: Vegetables was particular useful for its detailed collection of ethnobotanical knowledge about both domesticated and wild-harvested vegetables in Africa.[16]

PROTA3: Dyes and Tannins

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  • A 2006 book review of PROTA 3: Dyes and tannins published in Economic Botany noted that "the information contained in this volume highlights a number of lesser known species, and is a rich source of interesting information for anyone working at the interface of ethnobotany and domestication, and as such is a must have."[20]
  • About 64% of the 24 authors of PROTA 3: Dyes and tannins were from Africa.[8]

PROTA11: Medicinal Plants

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  • A 2014 book review of PROTA 11(2): Medicinal Plants noted that about 30% of the contributions were written by African ethnobotanists.

PROTA4U Database

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The PROTA 4U Database was conceived to improve access to information in PROTA's printed publications. The PROTA web database PROTA4U is a combination of PROTA’s highly standardized expert-validated review articles (PROTAbase) and yet-to-be-validated ‘starter kits’ for all other useful plants. These ‘starter kits’ are pre-filled with basic information from PROTA’s databases SPECIESLIST (important synonyms, uses, basic sources of information) and AFRIREFS (‘grey’ literature).

Furthermore, the records contain the results of a meta-analysis from a large collection of agricultural and botanical databases, conducted successfully in cooperation with the ICON Group International.[25] The websites, which allowed their databases to be harvested, are properly acknowledged in the ‘starter kits’.

Debate

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Some believe that the 2010–2012 world food price crisis and 2011 East Africa drought led to widespread interest in supporting research for intensive farming of popular food crops instead of traditional, diversified local plant resources which were the focus of PROTA.[26] During this time, responses to these large crises in the international finance and philanthropy communities may have shifted interest away from ethnobotanical research programs like PROTA. This raises questions about the role of traditional, diversified local plant resources in the study of food security, economic development, biodiversity conservation, and the preservation of cultural heritage and traditional knowledge.

See also

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Others

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References

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  1. ^ a b "About PROTA4U". www.prota4u.org. Retrieved 2022-10-26.
  2. ^ "Sustainable Forest Management Tool Details: Plant resources of tropical Africa (PROTA)". FAO. Food and Agriculture Organization. Retrieved 25 September 2023.
  3. ^ "PROTA (Plant Resources of Tropical Africa/Ressources Végétales de l'Afrique Tropicale). New innovative research partnership". www.gfar.net. 1 January 2001. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
  4. ^ "PROTA: Plant Resources of Tropical Africa- Relevancy for Sustainable Development (Presentation)". Slideshare. Plant Resources of Tropical Africa Foundation. 2012. Retrieved 2 Nov 2022.
  5. ^ Bosch, C.H.; Borus, D.J.; Siemonsma, J., eds. (2009). Vegetables of Tropical Africa: Conclusions and recommendations based on PROTA: 2 'Vegetables' (2nd ed.). PROTA Foundation.
  6. ^ Kilian, Norbert (31 August 2005). "Review of PROTA 2: Vegetables". Willdenowia (in German). 35: 212–213. JSTOR 3997617 – via JSTOR.
  7. ^ "Project to document plant resources of tropical Africa". CORDIS European Commission. 4 October 2002. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
  8. ^ a b Jansen, P.C.M.; Cardon, D., eds. (2005). Plant Resources of Tropical Africa 3: Dyes and tannins. PROTA Foundation, Wageningen, Netherlands / Backhuys Publishers, Leiden, Netherlands / CTA, Wageningen, Netherlands. ISBN 90-5782-159-1.
  9. ^ Brink, M.; Achigan-Dako, E.G., eds. (2012). Plant Resources of Tropical Africa 16: Fibres. Plant resources of tropical Africa, 1877-430X. Wageningen, Netherlands: PROTA Foundation. ISBN 978-92-9081-481-8.
  10. ^ Louppe, D.; Oteng-Amoako, A.A.; Brink, M., eds. (2008). Plant Resources of Tropical Africa 7(1): Timbers 1. Wageningen, Leiden: PROTA Foundation, Backhuys, CTA. ISBN 978-90-5782-209-4.
  11. ^ a b "Keep the PROTA and PROSEA portal in the air!". Wageningen University. Retrieved 9 August 2022.
  12. ^ a b c Schmelzer, G.H.; Gurib-Fakim, A., eds. (2008). Plant Resources of Tropical Africa 11(1). Medicinal plants 1. Wageningen, Netherlands: PROTA Foundation / Bacchus Publishers. p. 791.
  13. ^ Meertens, Bert; de Vries, Michiel (2014). Improving lowland rice cultivation: useful management practices for smallholders in tropical Africa (PDF) (1st ed.). Wageningen: Agromisa Foundation and CTA. ISBN 978-90-8573-142-9.
  14. ^ Oyen, L.P.A.; Lemmens, R.H.M.J., eds. (2002). Plant Resources of Tropical Africa: Precursor. Wageningen, Netherlands: PROTA Programme. p. 187. ISBN 90-77114-02-5.
  15. ^ Beentje, Henk (21 October 2022). "Book review of PROTA: Basic list of species and commodity grouping". Kew Bulletin. 58 (2): 510–511. doi:10.2307/4120640. JSTOR 4120640.
  16. ^ a b Robinson, Jonathan (2004). "Book Review: Plant Resources of Tropical Africa. Volume 2, Vegetables". Plant Genetic Resources Newsletter (140): 62 – via Biodiversity International.
  17. ^ a b "Google Scholar Search: "Plant Resources of Tropical Africa 2: Vegetables"". Google Scholar. 19 October 2022. Retrieved 19 October 2022.
  18. ^ Grubben, G.J.H. (1977). Tropical Vegetables and Their Genetic Resources (PDF). Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
  19. ^ "IUCN Headquarters' Library". IUCN. Retrieved 2022-11-21.
  20. ^ a b Van Damme, P., 2006. Book review - Plant Resources of Tropical Africa 3: Dyes and tannins. Economic Botany 60: 296-306.
  21. ^ a b c Adebooye, O.C.; Opabode, J.T. (2004). "Status of conservation of the indigenous leaf vegetables and fruits of Africa". African Journal of Biotechnology. 3 (12): 700, 701. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
  22. ^ Siemonsma, J. & Omino, E., 2003. PROTA State of the art. Pp. 90-100. In: Schmelzer, G.H. & Omino, E.A. Proceedings of the First PROTA International Workshop, 23–25 September 2002, Nairobi, Kenya. Plant Resources of Tropical Africa, Wageningen, the Netherlands.
  23. ^ Lock, Mike (21 October 2022). "Book Review: PROTA 2: Vegetables". Kew Bulletin. 59 (4): 650. doi:10.2307/4110929. JSTOR 4110929.
  24. ^ Nielsen, Ivan (2008). "Book Review of PROTA 2: Vegetables". Nordic Journal of Botany. 23: 298. doi:10.1111/j.1756-1051.2003.tb00397.x.
  25. ^ Gomba, Joash (2010). "Authoring and editing of articles made simple". Prota.co.ke. PROTA: Plant Resources of Tropical Africa. Archived from the original on 2011-07-22. Retrieved 2011-01-26.
  26. ^ Chauvet, Michel (2012-03-07). "PROTA 16 - Plantes à fibres". Tela Botanica (in French). Retrieved 2022-10-21.

External Resources

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