Mount Etinde, a sub-peak of Mount Cameroon. Insets: the nursery (top) and the herbarium (bottom), Limbe Botanic Garden. RBG Kew Trustees. A. McRobb

African forests and UK involvement

Africa, a continent of diverse, lush wet forests and arid and semi-arid woodlands as well as immense human poverty, exhibits all the problems and opportunities of forest lands.

The forests provide the resource base for millions of people with no other source of livelihood. They provide food, fuel, fodder and shelter, as well as products to trade locally and internationally. They are the home also to a diverse array of animals and plants, as well as providing the service functions to keep watersheds healthy and climate ameliorated.

Britain has had a long association with Africa and its forests, linkages that persist today through government development programmes, research projects, an extensive array of NGO activities aimed at improving the lives of forest peoples and conserving biodiversity, and through private sector commerce bringing trade opportunities.

The articles in this newsletter highlight some of the varied ways in which British involvement serves to contribute to improving the management of the African forests.