Ethiopian flora project

Abstract

After thorough planning, an Ethiopian Flora Project has recently been initiated, financed by the Ethiopian Science and Technology Commission from a Swedish grant. The planning was effected by a working group including representatives of the Biology Department at Addis Ababa University and the Institute of Systematic Botany in Uppsala as well as some international experts selected by AETFAT, and was finalized by an Ethiopian Flora Committee. The project leader is Professor Tewolde Berhan G. Egziabher in Addis Ababa, assisted by an Ethiopian secretariat under the Director of the National Herbarium. A European counterpart secretariat, headed by the author, has also been organized with Dr I. Hedberg as co-ordinator. Collecting expeditions to insufficiently known areas, loans from the Addis Ababa Herbarium to collaborating taxonomists, and other activities inside Ethiopia are organized by the Ethiopian secretariat, whereas the Uppsala secretariat is responsible for the initiation and co-ordination of the taxonomic revisions and family accounts needed for the Flora. Collaborators for several of the roughly 200 families of Ethiopian vascular plants have already been secured, but many more remain to be covered. AETFAT members with specialist knowledge of the remaining families are requested to help fill the gaps in our list of contributors.