West-central Africa contains the largest moist equatorial forest on the continent, indeed the second largest continuous tropical rain-forest in the world (3 million square km). The species richness of this region and its importance as a center for plant endemism makes it a key global center for biodiversity conservation. It is a unique area with great potential as a source of new molecular leads for drug development. The forest is currently facing major threats, including increased pressure from a growing human population and the destructive practices of logging and other commercial industry. This ICBG proposes to demonstrate that sustainable drug development is a viable alternative to such destructive activities as a source of income for local communities. This plan will encourage communities to protect their own resources. Our research design emphasizes the development of drugs for tropical diseases such as malaria and leishmaniasis as well as high-quality, affordable herbal medicines. We are also searching for new anti-HIV, anti-cancer and CNS drugs, as well as crop protection agents. The ICBG strategy is to use data from field ethnobotanical and ethnomedical surveys, plus biochemical information from the literature, to develop a prioritized list of plants for investigation. Such focus has been shown in our earlier work to markedly enhance the probability of discovering active lead compounds. We have established a 50-ha biodiversity plot in Cameroon as well as a network of 1-ha plots throughout Cameroon and Nigeria in unique vegetative zones in order to obtain long-term biological inventory and ecological dynamics data. A 50-ha plot in Nigeria is proposed in the present funding cycle. A database will link biochemical, ethnobotanical, economic and ecological data to allow the ICBG to determine the sustainability of long- term harvest of potentially valuable plants. Training, capacity building and infrastructure enhancement will be provided in all aspects of the project. The networks developed during the initial funding cycle will ensure that this project becomes a sustainable program which can operate and grow independently of this Group.
