Enhancing Taxonomic Skills in West Africa and Supporting the Growth of GC Herbarium (Ghana)

• Published in: Biodiversity Information Science and Standards 2024-10, Vol.8
• Main Authors: Borosova, Renata, Simoes, Ana Rita, Tang, Cheung, Ameka, Gabriel
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Algae; Biodiversity; Botanical gardens; Careers; Collaboration; Conservation; Education; Identification keys; Nomenclature; Science education; Social organization; Surveys; Taxonomic revision; Taxonomy; Training
• ISSN: 2535-0897; 2535-0897
• DOI: 10.3897/biss.8.139237

Training the next generation of environmental scientists is critical to the future of life on Earth as acknowledged in 2021 by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (RBG, Kew) in Our Manifesto for Change. RBG, Kew is also committed to strengthening capacity in the most biodiverse tropical countries by sharing expertise and collections, to enhance the global conservation effort. Developing training programmes to enhance taxonomic capacity in Africa and meeting the demand for early career in-country taxonomists was identified as the first step to accelerate the documentation and conservation of African plant diversity. Two years ago, RBG, Kew, in collaboration with the University of Ghana and the Ghana Herbarium (GC) and with support from the Schroder Charity Trust and Mallinckrodt Foundation, developed a tailored “Plant Taxonomy Skills for Ecology and Conservation” training course. This was planned to run in Africa, South America and Asia, alternating each year. The pilot was organised in Ghana, Africa in 2022. Participants for this 5-week course were selected from over 260 applicants. Delivered in a hybrid format, the course started with 3 weeks of online lectures, pre-recorded by 15 plant scientists and curators at RBG, Kew, as well as online interactive sessions. This was then followed by 2 weeks of in-person training in Ghana, including a 1-day field trip for practical collecting tips. The training covered herbarium curation techniques as well as concepts and skills needed for taxonomic revisions such as nomenclature, taxonomy, analysis of herbarium specimens, databasing, geo-referencing, preparation of morphological descriptions, diagnosis and identification keys as well as building distribution maps and red listing. The in-country teaching team included a curator-botanist, a plant taxonomist, a science education coordinator from RBG, Kew and two professors from University of Ghana. The course ended with a written assignment in the form of a taxonomic revision. A short survey was sent out to all course participants two years after the course to gather impacts of the training on their careers and uncover the most positive and negative aspects of the course. The course provided many positive outcomes: 15 plant taxonomists from eight African countries were trained, and jointly produced a taxonomic revision of 28 species of Ipomoea L. (Convolvulaceae) from Ghana (Williams et al. 2024). Additionally, The African Taxonomists Network was initiated by the course part