Plant Resources of Tropical Africa

PROTA has offices in the following countries:

• Uganda (East Africa)
• Malawi (southern Africa)
• Madagascar (Indian Ocean Islands)
• Gabon (Central Africa)
• Burkina Faso (francophone West Africa)
• Ghana (anglophone West Africa)
• Kenya (NO Africa)
• France (CO France)
• United Kingdom (CO United Kingdom)
• Netherlands (NO Europe)

Regional and Country Offices

The tasks of the Regional Offices (RO’s) are twofold:

• compile ‘grey’ literature
• disseminate PROTA information

The compilation of less-accessible literature involves localizing publications on useful plant species. Of the publications an abstract is made and the information is stored in PROTA’s AFRIREFS database.

The booklet series ‘PROTA Recommends...’ serves to disseminate PROTA information to the various target groups (policy-makers, higher education, research systems, rural development organizations and vocational training centres). The RO’s interact with the target groups in their region.

Furthermore, the RO’s and CO’s assist in the identification of authors and editors (stored in the EXPERTISE database), in keeping in contact with these authors and editors and in promoting PROTA in the region or country. They supervise Data Collectors in other countries in their region to help in the compilation of ‘grey’ literature and expertise in the field of useful plants.