ID: 613 / 127

Category: Symposia

Track: Pending

Proposed Symposium Title: AFRICAN TAXONOMY: A COLLABORATIVE EFFORT TOWARDS BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION

Abstract: Establishment of plant identity and their position in classification is the prime approach to exploring their value for the benefit of mankind. The African region is endowed with potent environment that supports rich biodiversity yet not much is known about plant diversity and its distribution in Africa. This is as a result of limited expertise in the botanical fraternity of Africa. Population growth has advanced anthropogenic activities contributing to climate change all over the world and the African continent suffers the consequences most due to inadequate financial resources. In the face of these challenges, the potential of the next generation of taxonomists who believe discovery as an essential for biodiversity conservation cannot be left unmined. A collaborative effort across the African continent is necessary to mitigate the menace of climate change and extinction, biodiversity conservation crises, aid classification and unearthing new species for their optimum benefits to the world. A Symposium is hereby proposed. The meeting aims at bringing together the taxonomists across the African continent, explore the capacity of the available resources, inspire, build capacity and collaboratively attempt to mitigate the afore mentioned challenges and more. This would also serve as a good opportunity to prepare the African continent for the next AETFAT meeting in 2025, Ghana.

Speaker 1: Alex Asase (Prof.) Centre for Plant Medicine Research alexasase2022@gmail.com Potential impacts of climate change on geographic distribution and conservation of the threatened West-Central endemic genus Talbotiella

Speaker 2: Ana Rita Simoes (PhD) Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew a.simoes@kew.org Enhancing taxonomy skills in Africa: joining efforts in training and international collaborations

Speaker 3: Morgan Gostel (PhD) Botanical Research Institute of Texas, USA mgostel@brit.org An overview of African ironweed systematics: diversity and evolution of Vernonieae (Compositae)

Topics (Up to three): Global Change Ecology

Topic 2: Floristics

Topic 3: Systematics

Justification: A symposium will be good preparation for the next regional meeting AETFAT 2025, that will happen in Ghana. A lot of Africans may not be able to participate at IBC 2024, but we believe a symposium will alert many Africans and get them ready to embrace AETFAT. It is our aim to help many African botanists secure funding for the meeting because there is an additional opportunity for presenting their work and link to other networks of professionals in the region. This is also an opportunity to bring together the botanic expertise of Africa for collaborative research works.