West & Central Africa
The West and Central Africa region of the World Agroforestry Centre covers a geographical area of 1200 million hectares, covering 21 countries with a population of over 330 million people. The regional office is in Yaounde, Cameroon.
The region contains two main agro-ecological zones:
- the dry Sahelian zone, a semi-arid landscape stretching from Chad to Senegal
- the Humid Tropics, spreading along the coast and extending to the central part of Africa.
The region's activities are carried out in the Sahel, in Upper Guinea and in the Humid Tropics zones, known as the 'nodes' of the region.
The region is the World Agroforestry Centre's flag bearer in participatory tree domestication and tree biodiversity conservation, which aim to enhance the livelihoods of smallholder farmers through increased income and non-income benefits from indigenous trees and shrubs.
Promoting cultivation of high-value plants
In participatory tree domestication, researchers work with communities to select species from their natural habitats and adapt them for cultivation on farms. The procedure involves the identification, reproduction, adoption and diffusion of quality and high market value germplasm (i.e. seeds, seedlings, cuttings etc).
The region's researchers have selected, developed and adapted vegetative tree propagation methods of air layering, rooting of cuttings and grafting. These techniques lead to early fruiting, replication of desired traits or characteristics, easy reproduction of species whose seeds are difficult to collect and conservation of valuable species.
Indigenous fruit trees such as Adansonia digitata, Cola spp, Dacryodes edulis, Garcina kola, Irvingia gabonensis, Ricinodendron heudelotti, Tamarindus indica, Vitellaria paradoxa, Ziziphus indica have been promoted using participatory approaches.
Others include oil tree species such as Allanblakia spp and vegetables including Adansonia digitata, Gnetum africanum, Moringa oliefera; spice species such as Afrostyrax lepidophyllus, Baillonella toxisperma, Monodora myristica and medicinal species, mainly Annickia chlorantha, Khaya senegalensis, Pausinystalia johimbe and Prunus Africana.
REGIONAL OFFICE & Humid Tropics Node
P.O Box 16317 Yaounde, Cameroon
Telephone: +237 22 21 50 84
Fax: +237 22 21 50 89
Email: icraf-aht@cgiar.org
Côte d’Ivoire
08 BP 1114 Abidjan 08, Cote d’Ivoire
Tel : (+225) 07 05 86 90
Email: C.kouame@cgiar.org
GHANA Office
P.O Box UP 63Kumasi
Ghana
Email: dofori@csir-forig.org.gh
Tel: (+233) 244854385
Fax :(+233) 322060121
Conakry-Guinea(LAMIL)
BP 5841, Conakry, Guinea
Tel: (+224) 6219 3326 / 6405 1775
Email: icraf-wca@cgiar.org
Sahel Node
BP E5118, Bamako, Mali
Tel: (+223) 2023 5000 / 2022 3375
Fax: (+223) 2022 8683
Email: icraf-wca@cgiar.org
Democratic Republic of Congo ICRAF Country Office
c/o INERA
Avenue des cliniques 13, Gombe,
TĂ©l :+243 817762807 / 897943806
Email : a.biloso@cgiar.org
Nigeria
P O Box 1698 Oko, Benin City,
Email: icraf-nigeria@cgiar.org
See Contact Us for a full list of contact details for all country offices in the West and Central Africa region.
