The status of mycology in Africa: A document to promote awareness

Abstract

The African Mycological Association (AMA) promotes mycology amongst members in Africa and globally. The AMA has about 200 members, mostly from African states but also with strong representation from Europe and USA, amongst others. Recent efforts by members of the AMA focused on reviving and developing mycological research and networking in Africa. A great deal must, however, still be done to promote the AMA under African mycologists, and those elsewhere with interests in Africa. African mycologists also experience challenges typical of the developing world and a great deal of fungi still needs to be discovered. This can also be seen as representing great opportunities for research and collaboration. Several issues pertinent to mycology in Africa were discussed during Special Interest Group sessions of the 9th International Mycological Congress in 2010, and through several opinion pieces contributed by AMA members in the AMA newsletter, MycoAfrica. This contribution serves as a document to summarise these in a form that can be presented to fellow mycologists, biologists and other scientists, relevant government departments, funding bodies and Non-Governmental Organizations and that pins down the importance of mycology, the status thereof in Africa and the need to promote it more.

Ethnomycological Conspectus of West African Mushrooms: An Awareness Document

“…In summary, the West African region may represent a diversity hotspot for more novel poisonous and nonpoisonous morphotypes (or forms) hitherto undocumented in literature [22]. This strongly suggests further need for fungi diversity characterization of locally indigenous species in the West African sub-region as a priority for their effective and potential utilization as well as conservation initiatives.…”

“…Invariably, it can be summated that the formal institutionalization of mycology (mycodiveristy, ethnomycology, mycosystematics, mycoecology, etc.) research structure is still developing and incongruous with reports affirming Africa as a potential biodiversity hotspots of mushroom diversity with undocumented and cryptic taxa [14,18,22]. The reports of Gryzenhout et al [22], Labarère and Menini, [26] and Crouse et al [27] on African mushrooms were limited to central and east Africa.…”

“…research structure is still developing and incongruous with reports affirming Africa as a potential biodiversity hotspots of mushroom diversity with undocumented and cryptic taxa [14,18,22]. The reports of Gryzenhout et al [22], Labarère and Menini, [26] and Crouse et al [27] on African mushrooms were limited to central and east Africa. There are however few ethnomycology reports on Nigeria [18,23], Burkina Faso [24,25], Cameroon [26][27][28][29][30], Ghana [31], Togo [32], Ivory Coast [33], Gabon [34], and Bénin [35,36].…”

Hacia un enfoque integrado de investigación micológica en Costa Rica

“…Modern techniques of study have created a revolution in both the rate of description of new species and the use of fungi for bioprospective research. Ironically, most of the tropical regions in the world, particularly in Africa, still lack basic elements to cope with the increasing demand to study fungi (see Gryzenhout et al, 2012). The most important of those elements is perhaps the availability of qualified personnel conducting research according to local interests.…”

The need to engage with citizen scientists to study the rich fungal biodiversity in South Africa

“…Fungi, together with numerous other microscopic organisms (Cowan et al 2013), are often treated by users of species names such as ecologists, conservationists and quarantine authorities, as a black box representing a group of organisms impossible to deal with (Gryzenhout et al 2012). This is true throughout the world, and the case in South Africa.…”