Wet Tropics Africa The great tropical rainforests of Africa are
some of the most species-rich natural habitats in the world.
Powered by sunlight, heat, and abundant rainfall, these ancient,
complex ecosystems teem with life, providing homes to a unique
assemblage of plants, animals, and fungi, most of which are
found nowhere else on earth. Kew's special area of expertise is
the rainforests of western Cameroon, where most of our current
research projects and co-operative ventures are based. The
Cameroon link goes right back to 1861, when Kew's first
director, Sir William Hooker, sent a botanist to explore and
collect in the Gulf of Guinea. Since then, the herbarium at Kew
has built up an unrivalled reference collection of Cameroon
plants – some 50,000 which are now databased – that has provided
the source material for regional floras, botanical accounts,
inventories, and practical guidebooks. This wealth of knowledge
is now being shared with a new generation of Cameroon biologists
keen to continue researching,