Speaker
Description
Africa made significant advances in palynological research, spanning multiple research fields such as paleoecology, palaeoclimatology, archaeology, petroleum exploration, aerobiology, melissopalynology, biodiversity conservation, and environmental management. However, research capacity and disciplinary focus vary across the continent. In Southern Africa, South Africa hosts the most comprehensive research programme in palynology. Nigeria leads West African/tropical palynology, while Ghana and adjacent countries are advancing tropical forests, mangroves, and forest–savanna transitions studies. In Eastern Africa, Kenya is globally recognised for paleoenvironmental lacustrine and Afromontane reconstructions, and Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Uganda contribute significantly. North Africa has strong multidisciplinary programmes, particularly in Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, and Algeria, whereas Central Africa, has the least published palynological studies in the continent. Despite these advances, African palynology remains geographically fragmented compared with Europe, where coordinated and well-funded scientific societies and research networks have promoted methodological standardization, data sharing, funding, and collaboration. In Africa, expertise is concentrated in relatively few institutions, limiting knowledge exchange, student training, methodological harmonization, funding, and continent-wide syntheses of vegetation history, climate change, biodiversity resilience, and ecosystem dynamics. Although the African Pollen Database (APD) Network was established to facilitate data sharing, its momentum has declined, leaving valuable datasets dispersed across laboratories and institutional archives rather than in an accessible continental repository. We therefore propose a framework comprising an African Palynological Society to coordinate research, training and advocacy; a revitalized open-access African Pollen Database supported by standardized contributions from all African regions; thematic working groups and regional hubs to coordinate training, maintain reference collections and promote collaborative research; and a peer-reviewed African Journal of Palynology. Collectively, these could transform African palynology into a coordinated, digitally connected research community, and deliver continent-scale syntheses to inform biodiversity conservation, climate adaptation, ecosystem restoration, and sustainable environmental management.
| Are you participating to the "AnaEE Environmental Rising Star Award "? | Yes |
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