What is the African BioGenome Project?

Africa is rich in biodiversity in terms of both species and endemicity. Unfortunately, Africa’s rich biodiversity is facing unprecedented levels of threat from climate change, deforestation and population growth.

Conservation and restoration of biodiversity through genomics is of paramount importance to minimize genetic erosion and safeguard genetic diversity of Africa’s plants and animals. Genomics facilitates biodiversity conservation by identifying traits important for the generation, persistence and adaptation of new species, alleles for breeding species with desirable traits and genomic patterns of inbreeding for rescuing at-risk populations.

Africa is lagging behind the rest of the world in implementing genomics technologies in livestock and crop breeding as well as biodiversity conservation, primarily due to the unavailability of local expertise and infrastructure.

A coordinated pan-African effort is key to building capacity (and infrastructure) to generate, analyze and deploy genomics data for the improvement and sustainable use of biodiversity and agriculture across Africa. We refer to this coordinated pan-African effort as the African BioGenome Project (AfricaBP), and the community of networks to deliver on this agenda as Digital Innovations in Africa for a Sustainable Agri-Environment and Conservation (DAISEA).