The objective of IGBP is « to describe and understand the interactive physical, chemical and biological processes that regulate the total Earth system, the unique environment that it provides for life, the changes that are occuring in this system, and the manner in which they are influenced by human activities ».  

Fig. 13  

This overall aim encompasses a wide spectrum of research activities. Several are taking place in Central Africa or involve Central African institutions. More details can be found for each specific program but the following activities are very important : 

• The IGBP-Data Information system (DIS) addresses thematic data issues. This core project of IGBP has placed priority on catalyzing the development of data sets that are of value to the multiple other core projects. It is in this context that the DIS 1 Km Land Cover data set has been developed. A classification of Africa has been produced by the Eros Data Center (EDC) of the US Geological Survey (USGS) in close collaboration with the MERCATOR project of the Joint Research Center of the European Commission.

• The IGBP-Land Use / Cover Change (LUCC) is concerned with understanding the human and biophysical causes of land use in order to predict and project changes and their impact on land cover. In the LUCC, the Transect program is important for Central Africa. Its goal is to investigate the relationship between ecosystem structure and function and its global drivers through a system of continental scale « mega-transects ». One such transect is proposed to span the arid to humid gradient in Southern Africa, within the savannas and the woodlands of the Kalahari sands, reaching the Congolese savanna areas. 

Recently, in the context of LUCC, a proposal by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory was accepted. The proposal will study land use and deforestation in Central and West African Tropical forest using High Resolution SAR Satellite Imagery (JERS). The work will be carried out in close partnership with the Joint Research Center of the European Commision and the NASA Landsat PATHFINDER Program.

• The IGBP-System for Analysis, Research and Training (START) is the instrument to involve the national institutions and national scientists in the IGBP research framework. In June 97, START funded the visit of Central African scientists to the NASA Landsat PATHFINDER program at the University of Maryland. In October 97, START will hold a Workshop in Accra (Ghana) on the Land Use and Land Cover Change in West and Central Africa. 

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