At the end of the Rio de Janeiro Conference on Plant Genetic Resources (RPG) held in June 1996, it was recognized that plant genetic resources were subject to genetic erosion and the degradation of ex-situ plant material as a result of various causes.

Building on this constant, the FAO Committee on Forestry recommended the development of a global plan for forest genetic resources (FGR) in 1997. According to the conclusions of the Ouagadougou workshop, held in September 1998 with the collaboration of FAO, it was recommended that sub-Saharan African countries develop an action plan on forest genetic resources, with the overall objective of promoting and strengthening national programmes on forest genetic resources. This plan was entitled “Programme on FGRs in Sub-Saharan Africa”, in the acronym SAFOREGEN.

It is in this context that the Ministry in charge of Forests through the Department of Forests has requested funding from FAO to conduct a study on the state of these resources.

This report is organized into three sections, namely:

• the first section includes the orientation summary;
• the second section contains information on the country and the forest sector;
• the third section discusses information on the state of forest genetic resources and consists of eight chapters.