Le journal de l'IRD
n° 33 January-February 2006
Translator: Nicholas Flay
Abstracts for the international issue
Of volcanoes
and cities
Collegial assessment, valorization of natural substances
from French Polynesia
T
“W
hat lines of strategy for a policy of
valorization of natural substances in
French Polynesia?” This question was the subject
of a collegial assessment conducted by the IRD at
the request of the Department of Research of the
Government of French Polynesia. The panel of
12 specialists, who met under the chairmanship
of Christian Moretti, drew up a state-of-the-art
report on the scientific and economic situation
that gave an indication of the comparative interest of the biodiversity of French Polynesia. The
review confirmed the existence of a considerable “biodiversity capital”, but found that
knowledge on this was still patchy. A register of useful plants in French Polynesia was also
produced.
Starting from the potential that was brought into evidence, what strategic lines can be distinguished that would be appropriate for the sustainable development, in and for the
benefit of French Polynesia, of an industrial sector based on natural substance valorization?
The panel’s assessment presented observations and suggestions that could be relevant on
the regional, South Pacific, scale. It resulted in a set of recommendations from which
emerges the importance of realizing the extent to which knowledge, protection and valorization of the biodiversity cannot be separated.
© IRD/J.-P. Eissen
he international symposium Cities on volcanoes in Quito from 23 to
27 January gives the opportunity to review IRD’s volcanology research conducted
in conjunction with the
geophysics department of
the National Polytechnic of
Quito. The Andes, and
especially the parts in Ecuador, are like a
full-sized natural laboratory with a multitude of volcanoes, both active and extinct.
Moreover, two major types – cones with
lava flows and ash deposits or viscous lava
domes – are found concentrated in a relatively restricted area. Neighbouring many of
the active volcanoes are some densely
populated urban areas, a situation that presents all the risks that eruption would involve. The threat for human populations is
therefore ever present in this region. It
necessitates highly effective management
of volcanic hazards and improvement of
prevention measures. This can be helped by
devising increasingly reliable and finely
accurate eruption forecasting systems.
The research investigations conducted by
IRD teams therefore aim to achieve an
improved understanding of mechanisms of
volcanic activity in particular localities in
order to predict the effects: What volume
of mud can form on eruption of volcanoes
capped with glaciers? What areas could be
inundated with mud flows, in particular
around Cotopaxi? What factors trigger avalanches of debris associated with the
region’s volcanic activity?
© IRD/J.-J. Lemasson
T
ropical
bats
were recently
identified as an
Ebola virus reservoir,
by scientists from
IRD research unit
UR178 Conditions et
territoires d’émergence des maladies
and the International Centre for medical
research at Franceville (Gabon). It had
been known that the virus could be
transmitted from great apes to humans
but the virus’s natural reservoir and its
method of transmission to primates
remained to be defined.
Investigations conducted from 2001 to
2003 in the border zone between
Gabon and the Republic of Congo led
to the detection of specific antibodies of
an Ebola virus subtype and genome
fragments of the same subtype in the
serum and organs of three species of
bat:
Hypsignasthus
monstrosus,
Epomops franqueti and Myonycteris
torquata. These carry the virus without
showing the disease symptoms, which
points to their being a potential natural
reservoir for Ebola. Contamination of
primates would have taken place in the
dry season, when food resources
seriously decline and they come into
competition with the bats for feeding,
meaning that the different animals are
in close proximity more often and
contact is more frequent. These results,
published in Nature, shed new light on
the episodic nature of epidemics that
flare up in primates and in humans.
Valorization
© IRD/C. Ollier
Fruit bats a reservoir
for Ebola virus
p.8-9 Research
Two volcanoes of the same type,
Tungurahua and El Reventador, showed
completely different behaviour when activity was rekindled, respectively in 1999 and
2002. A comparative study brought to light
the limitations of forecasting. Nevertheless,
the combination of basic research and field
surveillance helps establish real-time predictions in order to issue rapid warnings to
populations that could be affected by such
events. The researchers are also looking
into the impact of eruptions on the environment. In addition, a team of young
scientists associated with the IRD has been
set up to conduct fundamental research on
the subject: characterization of eruption
dynamics, determination of the architecture of the deposits laid down, and the
modes of emplacement of pyroclastic
flows.
Research
North Vietnam
Assistance during agrarian change
A
p. 16 Forum
Sustainability, new incarnation of development?
he notion of sustainable development seems to be part of an old economic story. It
appears as the latest incarnation of a questioning of economic evolution and the place
the capitalist dynamic has in this. Two models can currently be distinguished. The first carries the idea that the problems of the environment and poverty can only be solved by
growth. The second implies the taking into account of the special character of environmental phenomena which are judged not be reducible down to market-place terms.
However, a third current of thought is beginning to be discernable: some authors are rejecting the very idea of development. The accusation is that development is a mask hiding an
advancing westernization of the world and a merchandizing of relationships in societies.
Partners
Forests of the Congo Basin
A major economic
and environmental issue
© IRD/J.-C. Castella
T
long with economic reforms undertaken in Vietnam
at the end of the 1980s came a rapid transition from
collectivist agriculture to farming based on family units.
However, populations in the mountainous areas had lost
their traditional reference points, and this transformation
left them deprived. They still practise subsistence agriculture and the production activities involved depend directly on the availability of natural
resources that can be mobilized. Yet national policies adopted offered families no alternative but to cease abruptly practices on which their short-term security of food supply
depended.
In this context, the first phase of the Mountain
Agrarian Systems programme, from 1998 to 2003,
involved the assessment of the environmental situation and built up a research-action scheme with local
parties. This was achieved with the aid of original
methods. Phase 2 of this project (2003-2006), devoted to the assessment of how the adoption of the
technical alternatives proposed is progressing, is
being run by the same institutional partners and
coordinated by Cirad. Phase 3 is at planning stage. It
will be geared to the large-scale dissemination of the
proposed measures and to a progressive process of
giving autonomy to the project’s Vietnamese partners.
T
p. 16 Forum
News
p. 7 Research
Clinical trials, a complex
social issue
Science, society
and development`
A quiet revolution in knowledge on bathyal fauna
F
A
t the end of October, Jean-François
Girard, IRD Chairman, went to
Niamey at the invitation of the President
of the National Assembly of the Republic
of Niger, Mr Ousmane Mahamane, for an
exceptional audience with the Chamber
of Deputies on the theme Science, society and development. This mission in the
capital of Niger also provided the opportunity for the IRD Chairman to talk with
the Prime Minister, the Minister for
Secondary and Higher Education,
Research and Technology and also with
the Rector of Abdou Moumouni
University. The rector invited the Professor
Girard, during his short stay, to address
leading
officials of
the university in a
seminar
meeting.
D
e e p
marine
ecosystems
have
long
been considered as extremely rare entities in a cold
dark mass of
water otherwise devoid
of life. Yet,
observations and experiments run jointly
by IRD research unit UR148 Systématique,
adaptation, évolution and the French
Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle are
completely changing this conventional
view. A campaign having the objective of
catching specimens of the fauna in question (molluscs such as gastropods and
bivalves, crustaceans, echinoderms and so
on) was run from 2003: a line with nine
experimental pots covered by netting
with mesh of 3 mm and containing unusual kinds of bait (pieces of wood of several different species, blue whale verte-
© IRD/B. Richer de Forges
or several decades now, any new biomedical therapeutic strategy must be
submitted to an experimental assessment
procedure: the clinical trial. This demonstration protocol has several functions and different levels of legitimacy. The parties involved in such trials or who intervene in the
way they are run are many and diverse. For
each, the major issues and criteria on which
guiding arguments and practices are built
are highly varied in character. The recent
expansion of clinical research in the countries of the South raises many causes for
concern and much questioning, even
controversies in which the often ideological
stances taken complicate the debate. Many
of the questions and matters of controversy voiced are nevertheless pertinent., especially those regarding ethics, because trials
are often aimed at populations that are vulnerable. The choice of clinical trials as a
topic for anthropological investigations
should lead the way to analysis of what is a
complicated tangle of different ways of reasoning of the different actors.
© IRD/T. Amadou
© Cirad/Ch. Doumenge
he River Congo Basin is the world’s
second largest mass of tropical forest,
after the Amazon and much more extensive than the forests of South-East Asia. Its
extent is indeed remarkable, but its interest
lies in the plant and animal resources it harbours. The forest is the home of populations who are seeking development, who
hope to be able to improve their living
conditions by exploiting the region’s
resources. The abundant natural wealth –
wood, other forest products, minerals,
hydrological resources – is also arousing
many appetites. For these reasons, various
national and international actors are aiming
to put systems for sustainable management in place in the heart of these forests.
brae, green turtle shell, stag horn etc)
were immersed down to 1 100 m, off the
barrier reef of New Caledonia. This device
was retrieved in June 2005. An abundant
and varied macrofauna had been captured. This indicates that the larvae of different organisms were able to detect the
presence of organic substrates, find their
way into the pots and develop there. The
size and maturity of these species of molluscs and crustaceans yield new information about the rate of growth of deepocean organisms. Studies are now to be
pursued to clarify relationships between
individual specimens, bring fundamental
knowledge on the dispersion of larvae in
the oceans, test phylogenetic hypotheses
on the origin of fauna from hydrothermal
vents from their DNA. Two new lines of
pots were set at between 800 and 600 m
depth in September 2005 and will be
brought back to the surface in 2006 and
2007.
Consult the articles in full on the IRD Internet site : http://www.ird.fr
© IRD/J.-C. Castella
News