Mushrooms, seaweed and other 'bio-resources' offer opportunities in Africa

Tuesday, 11 May 2004: African communities are growing mushrooms and harvesting seaweed, water hyacinth and other biological resources that were ignored or considered waste as part of an effort to improve livelihoods and help conserve the environment.

The UNDP ZERI regional project on sustainable development from Africa's biodiversity, based at the University of Namibia, is promoting these activities. It is based on the Zero Emissions Research Initiative (ZERI) pioneered at the United Nations University, which has focused on using waste products as raw materials.

Namibia's President Sam Nujoma calls the concept a "win-win situation, where the private sector will improve their profits and even create new employment opportunities, while at the same time contributing to the sustainable conservation of our environment." He spoke at a recent donor conference in Windhoek, the capital, to discuss the project's next phase. Namibia has hosted the project since 2001.

Other participating countries are Gambia, Lesotho, Malawi, Senegal, Swaziland, Tanzania and Zambia.

The project provided training in mushroom growing, mainly for women, leading to profitable businesses in Namibia, Tanzania and Zambia that supply mushrooms to local markets, restaurants and hotels.

Communities in Zambia are gathering water hyacinths and exchanging them for banana and orange seedlings. A ZERI pilot project with the University of Zambia and other partners is showing how the hyacinths, rich in nutrients, can be made into fertilizer and used for growing mushrooms.

The project is also working with University of Namibia's Marine and Coastal Resources Research Centre and other partners to tap the potential of seaweed, which can be used in soaps and other beauty products, for example.

For its next phase, the project is looking at other potential resources such as ganoderma mushrooms for medication to strengthen the immune system, possibly for treating HIV/AIDS. Termitomyces titanicus, the world's largest umbrella mushroom, with an edible cap up to three feet in diameter, and the edible goliath frog, the largest in the world, from the Congo region could become marketable products.

Namibia's Minister of Fisheries Abraham Iyambo said he hoped that the project could develop fish food from algae for the country's growing aquaculture industry. "We need to turn our dream into reality, though access to affordable capital is the key constraint," he said. "With the assistance of the international community, the time is right for Africa."

Keto E. Mshigeni, Regional Project Director, pointed out that Africa's rural communities are "custodians of a rich body of indigenous knowledge" on the continent's biological resources that can be commercialized and marketed globally.

Development of Africa's rich natural resources has been constrained by "lack of innovative approaches, inadequate policy and institutional frameworks, and lack of sustained political commitment," said Abdoulie Janneh, UNDP Assistant Administrator and Director of the Regional Bureau for Africa. The project's emphasis on improving livelihoods makes it an effective instrument for reinforcing democratization, economic reform and poverty reduction, he said.

For more information, please contact , UNDP Namibia, or , UNDP Communications Office.