Background and Aim of the AFRIFOR project

The importance of non-timber forest products (e.g. wild foods, medicinal plants) for better balancing tropical forest conservation and poverty alleviation goals is increasingly recognised.
Yet, in Africa, poor understanding on harvesting’ impacts on the species targeted and on forest carbon stocks, together with little information on the traditional institutions (e.g. taboos) which have informally regulated the extraction of these products in the past, hamper the integration of such products in both forest conservation and development initiatives.

The ERC-funded AFRIFOR project aims to bridge this knowledge gap. It will explore sustainable harvesting practices, the potential synergies between non-timber forest products harvesting and carbon storage, and possibilities for integrating traditional institutions into formal conservation efforts. As a high-risk, high-gain project, AFRIFOR promises a transformative step forward in Africa’s forest conservation journey, aligning biodiversity protection, carbon storage, and poverty alleviation. The project focuses on the use of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary methods, across 20 socio-ecological forest contexts in West and Central Africa.