Chapter 1
Research, training and consultancy
■ Earth and environment
■ Living resources
■ Societies and health
■ Expertise and consulting
■ Support and training
■ Information and
4
communication
5
Chapter 1
The Earth and Environment department (DME: département milieux et environnement),
with its 23 research units and service units (URs and USs), encompasses a wide range of
disciplines and examines environmental problems from the standpoint of interactions
between atmosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere. Its work covers a large part of the Earth’s
tropical zone.
Earth and environment
The process of opening up IRD research to French and
European partners continued in 2001. IRD teams joined
with other French teams in joint research units and
actions, submitting joint scientific projects to national
and European research programmes, purchasing analytical equipment for joint use, etc.
In the tropical belt, some of the physical and chemical
processes affecting the environment can no longer be
considered separately from biological and medical studies and socio-economic approaches. One illustration of
this trend is the acquisition, on a joint proposal from the
Earth and Environment department and the Living
Resources department, of a multi-beam sensor for
detailed mapping of the sea floor between 0 and
1000 metres’ depth, for the Institute’s oceanographic
vessel Alis. Use of the space facilities in French Guiana to
combine satellite remote sensing with epidemiology is
another example of the way research is changing.
Within the DME, the objective of all four research themes
is to enhance understanding of natural phenomena so as
to improve forecasting of the attendant hazards.
The earth’s crust:
processes and natural hazards
The processes that go on at the surface of the Earth
or deep beneath it, such as vertical and horizontal
movements of the earth’s crust, transfers of matter and
chemical processes, can generate earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. The department has launched several
research projects in the tropical zone to work towards
forecasting the hazards caused by the movements of the
tectonic plates that form the Pacific ocean floor. The
processes studied are the speed at which these plates are
converging in the Southwest Pacific and the uplift and
erosion of mountain chains such as the Andes. Because
these are often the most rapid movements of their kind,
they help us to refine our models, especially as regards
the accumulation of mineral resources and transfers of
matter between the continental and oceanic plates. The
teams working in these regions cooperate with local
partners, training them where necessary so that they can
work independently and join other agencies developing
regional programmes.
Our approach to weathering and erosion in the tropical
belt is to examine both geochemical processes both at
two levels: mineral formation and landscape. First and
foremost this means quantifying and dating the deposition and weathering processes of surface formations,
especially laterite formations. Secondly we aim to
improve understanding of the biogeochemical cycle of
elements at the interface between plant and soil. And
lastly, our approach can enable us to locate economically
usable minerals and develop methods for rehabilitating
old mine sites.
6
Continental, coastal and marine
environments
To make sustainable development a feasible proposition,
research into continental, coastal and marine environments is now focusing on quantitative modelling of the
relations between populations and their particular environments. This work, which is conducted in response to
social demands addressed to the Institute’s partners, will
in the long run produce decision tools that encompass
environmental, social and economic parameters.
This is the purpose of the department’s research into the
impact of human activities on resources in arid and semiarid zones. To assess water resources, we are working to
determine the parameters needed to describe exchanges
of mass and transfers of energy between biosphere and
atmosphere.
In coastal oceanography, two URs are examining the
effects of human inputs on water fertility and ecological
balance in the Indo-Pacific (New Caledonia’s big lagoon,
Fiji, French Polynesia, Réunion and the Mozambique
Channel). Because these are environments where all
kinds of factors interact, such research has to be multidisciplinary, ranging from hydrodynamics to molecular
biology.
Chapter 1
Earth and environment
Climate variability and impact
Several programmes are under way in the tropical
Atlantic and Pacific to study climatic variations at all
scales – season to season, year to year and in terms of
palaeoclimates. The tropical oceans play a special part in
the climate change we are now going through, and the
huge impact of El Niño events on ecosystems around the
Pacific is now a proven fact. As climate change has direct
consequences for the region, six French research bodies
have joined forces to launch the Mercator project, which
is to run an operational oceanographic system and
disseminate practical applications.
To quantitatively reconstruct the climate over recent
centuries, Andean glaciers and Pacific corals provide
markers. From these it has been shown, for example,
that the southwestern tropical Pacific cooled by 2°C
between 1720 and 1740. In Brazil, continental markers
such as speleothems are being used to reconstitute
climate patterns as far back as 6000 years.
Sustainable management
of water resources
As a result of climate change and population pressure,
water has become a key issue. IRD scientists are studying
the dynamics of this precious resource, which depend
primarily on climate processes, soil types and management methods. France’s national hydrology research programme, the PNRH, is based on observation systems that
now cover most of Africa and some major river basins
such as the Amazon, and continuous updating of the
related data banks. The purpose is to identify relevant
standardised indicators for monitoring the state of water
resources. To achieve more quantitative models, there
are programmes studying some of the factors in the variability of the African and South American monsoons:
rainfall zones, the life cycle of convection systems, the
water cycle, etc.
7
Impact of the Garafiri dam
The Garafiri dam was built to supply part of Guinea with electricity. Located on the
Konkouré river in the foothills of the Fouta Djallon, it controls an area of 2460 km2
– 14% of the Konkouré basin (roughly 17,250 km2).
Reservoir filling began in April 1999 and was completed
in September 1999. The hydro-electric turbines were
installed in early 2000 and the facility is now fully operational. The artificial lake, when full, covers 79 km2, a
maximum depth of 55 metres and a mean depth of
20 metres. This is quite a large reservoir, and has an
impact on the environment.
In 1998, while the dam was being built, Guinea’s natural
resources and energy ministry and the Entreprise
Nationale d’Electricité de Guinée at Garafiri asked the
IRD for a scientific survey. The IRD, Bas-Rhône Languedoc
Ingénieurie (BRLi) and the Société Française d’Ingénieurie
(BCEOM) were jointly commissioned to monitor the dam’s impact on the Konkouré
river basin and estuary. The Agence Française de Développement provided 1 million
euros to finance the work.
Since 1998 more than ten consultants (including independent consultants) have
been to Guinea to work. On the Guinean side, thirteen researchers and technicians
are taking part. They are from the Conakry research centre CERESCOR, the national
fisheries sciences centre in Boussoura, the Direction nationale de l’hydraulique and
the national meteorology office.
The purpose of the study is to observe a set of physical, chemical and biological variables so as to measure changes occurring during construction, impoundment and operation of the dam. This will allow a
better assessment of the structure’s impact on the environment downstream and provide the authorities
with information for decision making for management of the dam, the reservoir and the area affected
by the dam.
Establishing comparative records of the state of the Konkouré before and after impoundment of the dam
means gathering many different kinds of data in the Konkouré basin and estuary, around the dam and
in inshore waters. These field observations, which have to be processed for the four years of the study,
concern rainfall, inland and estuarine hydrometry, the physico-chemical characteristics of the water,
suspended solids transport, aquatic life and the morphology and sedimentology of the estuary.
After three years’ work, the first results confirm that water in the catchment is particularly diluted (10, to
25 µS/cm). They also show stratification in the reservoir, with an anoxic layer at the bottom, which thins
during the cool season. The building of the dam and the start-up of the Garafiri hydroelectric facility have
significantly altered flow rates in the Konkouré. In the estuary, because low-water flow has increased,
salinity has retreated downstream and the distribution of mangrove oysters and fish has been altered.
One of the IRD units working on the impact study is the service unit “Dynamics, impact and utilisation
of water engineering structures” (US048 Divha). The information gathered on the Konkouré basin and
estuary are being used to test the methods and generic modelling environment Divha is developing. The
models of catchment management and water quality management in a tropical reservoir worked out for
Konkouré will be transferred to the Guinean authorities. They will also be available for feasibility studies
for other dams in the tropics.
Contacts: Luc Ferry - ferryluc@yahoo.fr
Patrick Le Goulven - Patrick.LeGoulven@mpl.ird.fr
8
> example
CDP number
The Ecuador-Colombia margin, where the Nazca plate is subducting at a rate of some 6 centimetres a
year under the South American plate, is an exceptionally active region. Six major subduction quakes of
7.8 to 8.8 magnitude occurred in this margin in the 20th century. The biggest, in 1906, showed a
rupture zone 500 km long, which was partly reactivated by three big quakes in 1942, 1958 and 1979.
Segmented and greatly deformed, this margin involves the subduction of several structural domains of
the Nazca plate, including the roughly 200 km wide Carnegie volcanic ridge.
13000
12000
11000
10000
9000
8000
7000
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
landslip
accretion wedge
eroded margin
Nazca océanic Plate
interplate contact
Multichannel seismic reflection profile cutting vertically through the Ecuador margin in the Gulf of Guayaquil (Sisteur
campaign). The Nazca plate (blue) is forcing its way under the Ecuador margin (green) at ~ 6 cm a year, taking pelagic
sediment (yellow) with it. Sediment deposited in the trench (orange) is caught by the margin front (green) and pushed
up, forming an accretion wedge. Subduction quakes occur along the interface between the two plates (red line), which
reaches a depth of ~ 20 km on the right of the profile.
According to the initial observations, there is a 700-km stretch where the margin has suffered tectonic
erosion throughout, which favours subsidence of the continental plateau and localised retreat of the
coastline. The products of this erosion and the undersea sediment layers on the Nazca plate are drawn
into fault zone between the plates. This zone has been acoustically imaged to a depth of about 20 km,
revealing structural and geometrical complexities that may be linked to seismic ruptures. No terrigenous
deposits have been found in the Ecuador trench where it intersects with the Carnegie ridge; the structure
of the margin shows massive collapses and impacts left by seamounts that have subducted. These observations mean that the margin is extremely unstable, susceptible to seismic shocks and capable of generating tsunamis. The North Ecuador trench, on the other hand, has terrigenous sediments up to 3 km thick,
originating from glacial stripping of the Andes. Only a tiny proportion of these deposits is squeezed
against the margin where the plates meet. This situation, unstable in the long run, reflects a deep-lying
structural complexity in the inter-plate fault which may have been responsible for the great 1979 quake.
Scientists on the programme have also identified several major transverse faults. Three of these coincide
with the boundaries between the rupture zones of major subduction quakes. This correlation also shows
that transverse crustal faults acts as barriers to the propagation of seismic ruptures.
Lastly, researchers have modelled a deep geological layer discovered near the inter-plate fault in Ecuador;
the model shows that seismic waves propagate fairly slowly in that layer. This may make it possible to
establish the link between this deep layer and the generation of subduction quakes. These new data add
to our understanding of lithosphere deformation processes and should help in assessing coastal seismic
hazards in Ecuador and Colombia.
> example
14000
Ecuador trench
The Sisteur programme, led by the Géosciences Azur joint research unit (UR082) in cooperation with
Ecuadorian, Colombian, German and Canadian partners, is adding to our knowledge of the lithospheric
faults whose rupture produces major subduction quakes and tidal waves. Two oceanographic surveys
were run in 2000 and 2001, using modern seismic imaging techniques to locate these structures and
study the physical properties of the margin’s rocks. These were the Sisteur survey, conducted on board
Ifremer’s Nadir and the Ecuadorian navy’s Orion, and the Franco-German Salieri survey conducted in
Ecuador from the vessel Sonne. From the data gathered, the scientists were able to establish a link
between the structural context and the characteristics of the main seismic rupture zones.
Contact: Jean-Yves Collot - collot@obs-vlfr.fr
15000
fore-arc sedimentary basin
Seconds Two way Travel time
Earthquakes beneath the Ecuador-Colombia margin
16000
The lithospheric plates that form the Earth’s ocean floors migrate slowly across
the globe and are carried down beneath the edges of the continental plates,
along huge ocean trenches. This meeting of plates generates the intense
tectonic deformations characteristic of active margins. Ninety percent of the
planet’s seismic energy is released along mega-faults between plates, fragile
surfaces inclined at angles of 20° to 45° beneath the continent. As yet we have
only fragmentary knowledge of the seismogenic zone, the part of this surface
where seismic ruptures occur, causing major natural disasters. Its mechanical
behaviour is greatly influenced by the thermal structure of the margin. However, shear stress and the
effective friction coefficient along the fault are extremely slight, which seems to be in contradiction
with the strength of the quakes (M > 8). The structure of these faults, which act as barriers to the
propagation of the rupture, and the physical nature of the seismological asperities (parts of the fault
where co-seismic displacement is greatest) are not yet known.
9
Freons as oceanic tracers
Ocean currents, at the surface and at depth, play a vital part in climate
processes. Oceans absorb heat from the sun (mainly in the tropics) and currents
transport and distribute that heat to different parts of the world.
Some of the problems we currently encounter in forecasting climate change are
due to our lack of understanding of ocean circulation. This lack is particularly
acute for the Atlantic, which has a direct influence on climate and weather in
Africa, Brazil, Europe and northeastern America.
The Equalant programme1, which the IRD has been leading since 1999, is
mainly designed to improve knowledge of the dynamics of deep currents, focusing particularly on determining the circulation of one of the main components of circulation in the Atlantic, the Deep Western
Boundary Current (DWBC) which carries the North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) from the seas off
Labrador, Norway and Greenland down the East coast of America to the coast of French Guiana and
Brazil in the southern hemisphere, before part of the current turns east along the Equator.
Oceanographic surveys in 1999 and 2000 covered the entire equatorial strip from the coast of Brazil to
the edge of the Gulf of Guinea. Measurements were taken of physical, hydrological and chemical
parameters (current speed, temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, nutrient salts and freons, CO2, etc.),
as well as weather parameters, along several meridional radials. The data have improved our
understanding of deep Equatorial circulation.
Analysis of freon concentrations2 has established beyond doubt the rapid zonal bifurcation of deep water
flows reaching the eastern equatorial basin. The most innovative results are from the study of variability
over time in the characteristics of the deep waters on the Equator, in response to the variability of the
North Atlantic. A first series of measurements of mean freon concentrations was taken at intervals
between 1990 and 1999, along sections at 35°W (between 4°S and 4°N). From this time series, we were
able to reconstitute a ten year history of the two distinct water masses that make up the NADW, one
originating in the Labrador Sea and the other, denser mass flowing from the Straits of Denmark.
Another application for the freon measurements is as a new way of monitoring the new form of Labrador
Sea Water formed by a surge in convection in the Labrador basin in 1988: thanks to the freons, this water
mass has been identified all the way to the tropics, in 1996 at 7°N at the heart of the DWBC and then
on the Equator at 23°W during the Equalant 1999 survey and at 0°E during Equalant 2000. From this
work, researchers estimate that it takes oceanic anomalies less than ten years to travel between high
latitudes in the northern hemisphere and the tropics.
This shows how valuable these approaches can be for monitoring the impact of global climate change,
particularly around the tropics, where water masses undergo transformations that have a major impact
on the tropical climate, as deep water becomes intermediate water and then surface water.
Contact: Chantal Andrié - Chantal.Andrie@lodyc.jussieu.fr
(1) Equalant is part of the Eclat programme (Etudes climatiques en Atlantique tropicale), a strand of the French
national climate study programme (PNEDC), which in turn is the French contribution to CLIVAR, the international
Climate Variability and Predictability programme. The Equalant surveys, headed by the IRD (the dynamic
oceanography and climatology laboratory LODYC and the IRD Centre in Brittany), also involved Météo France, the
CNRS, the Paris-VI University, the IUEM and the Universities of Saõ Paolo (Brazil) and Cocody (Côte d’Ivoire).
(2) Freons (CFCs or chlorofluoromethanes) are synthetic compounds which have been manufactured and released
into the atmosphere since 1940. Convection carried them down into northern seas, where they move with
the currents. They can be used as ocean tracers to track the movement of cold waters down to the southern
hemisphere.
10
> example
Lagoon system equilibrium
The recent spread of urbanisation, farming, industry and tourism in the island States of the Pacific have
caused major and lasting degradation of their lagoon and reef ecosystems. In New Caledonia, the main
sources of the problem are urban growth and mining. The main objective of the Camélia research unit
(UR103) is to determine and model the transport and transformation mechanisms of the main inputs to
lagoon systems, both natural terrigenous inputs and those due to human activity, and to analyse the
impact of these inputs on the lagoon system’s functioning. The team focuses particularly on particles,
nutrients and metals, which can cause over-sedimentation, eutrophication and toxicity respectively.
Divided into several research tasks – circulation and transport, biological functioning, historical sedimentary archives and bio-accumulation of metals in living things – the project has already produced some
major information items. A highlight of 2001 was the team’s modelling work on particle transport.
What becomes of inputs reaching coastal waters depends mainly on water circulation. Modelling is the
only tool that allows researchers to advance from individual measurements taken in the field to a predictive synoptic representation of circulation. From several years’ work in New Caledonia’s southwestern
lagoon, we have now made a simulation of circulation under different climate regimes. At present the
team is using a 3-D model that takes account of tidal currents and wind. Based on this work, the hydrodynamic models were coupled in two stages with a particle transport model. A first computer model of
transport was developed for cohesive sediments (i.e. mud), and the model’s sensitivity and calibration
were tested so as to obtain a preliminary estimation of the main parameters involved in the process of
transport, sedimentation in the water column and erosion/deposition at the water-sediment interface.
The work revealed two important points:
- the influence of the wind predominates in the erosion-sedimentation process in shallow areas, with a
more direct effect on erosion in waters less than 20 metres deep;
- the tide, a permanent feature, largely controls particle transport, vertical mixing in the water column
and deposition in areas where the wind’s influence is weak.
This model was then adapted to discovering more about the transport of non-cohesive suspended particles (i.e. sand), simulating transport under the combined effects of tide and wind. Transport of a population of particles ranging widely in size can be processed by simultaneous resolution of as many transport equations as there are particle size classes representing all the particles. The first simulations of suspended transport of non-cohesive particles in the southwestern lagoon show that the erosion zones correspond to those where the coarse fraction is predominant.
In the medium term, this model can be used to simulate paroxysmal events such as hurricanes, which
would have profiles even further from equilibrium.
Contact: Renaud Fichez - fichez@noumea.ird.nc
11
> example
Chapter 1
The Living Resources department (DRV, département des ressources vivantes) had eight new
research units in 2001, making a total of 37 units, several of which are joint research units.
The new units have strengthened and formalised research projects on tropical forest dynamics (in French Guiana particularly), on the response mechanisms of reef and lagoon coral
ecosystems to human interference, on protected areas and conservation biology, and on
developing biological pest control methods for crops and cultivated plants.
Living resources
The southern countries’ first concern is to feed their fastgrowing populations. This concern will become a major
problem over the next twenty years. The reasons for the
expected food shortage are many: uncontrolled population growth, limited water resources, environmental
degradation, over-exploited resources, climate change.
The combined result is food shortage, and the department’s work is geared to this problem.
Fishery and aquaculture
Wild aquatic resources are being exploited at maximum
potential or above. In a few marine or freshwater situations some increase in resources may be hoped for, but
this would be only a marginal increase. The IRD teams,
along with the best teams and researchers from Europe,
North America and the South, and with the support of
the European Union, the Food and Agriculture
Organisation (FAO) and Unesco, are looking for precise,
practical “ecosystem indicators”. These indicators are
functions combining several parameters, which can be
used for continuous monitoring of the general state of
health of a marine ecosystem in the face of human
exploitation and pollution. Identifying such indicators,
especially indicators that are precise and easy to use, is a
real challenge given the complexity of the interactions
between a marine ecosystem and its exploitation.
Aquaculture is a promising avenue for significantly
increasing food production. But the benefits will come
too late, since it requires many technical developments
that take time to achieve, and in developing countries it
also requires the cultural and technical conditions for
adopting practices and transferring technology.
Agricultural research
It is therefore agriculture that will have to meet the dramatic increase in food requirements. As the world’s farmland cannot be much increased in area, yields on existing
farmland must be increased. Broadly speaking, intensifying production in sustainable conditions can be achieved
in two ways: crop variety improvement, and optimising
cropping methods and practices. These are the two main
themes of the department’s agricultural research.
Research to increase the resistance of crops to parasites,
pesticides or heat, reduce their water requirements,
increase grain or fruit size or improve nutritional quality
involves genomics and molecular biology.
Our scientists, often in partnership with private enterprise, explore the genetic mechanisms that determine
the characteristics, properties and behaviour of a plant
with a view to rapid application in agriculture.
That is why, although systematic productive use of
genetically modified crops is as yet premature, research
12
that may produce GM varieties that are better than existing ones while presenting no danger to humans or the
environment, is a vital necessity. Furthermore, this type
of research using biotechnology greatly accelerates the
acquisition of knowledge for plant breeding without
genetic modification: for example, the selection process
is much faster with the use of genetic markers.
Plant physiology and cell biology research are also helping to speed up plant breeding by providing more
detailed knowledge of how cultivated plants function.
Generally speaking, in the countries of the North, Europe
and North America particularly, and apart from work in
molecular biology and genomics, agronomists have
focused on production systems. Taking the view that
intensification can be achieved more by improving the
organisation of production than by improved production
per se, they propose major, rapid progress in productivity
at every stage of the cropping cycle.
Chapter 1
Living resources
Although this line of research has fallen
somewhat out of favour, the IRD will be focusing on it at
least as much as on genomics and plant breeding.
Without importing new techniques or costly technology,
the production systems approach can increase yields and
cut the cost of massive and increasing use of bought-in
pesticides and fertilisers or imported seed. IRD research
to adapt cropping practices while emphasising respect
for cultural practices and the environment (using
biological and ecosystem pest control among other
approaches) has three goals: to increase productivity,
economise on resources and create a sustainable system.
An approach that looks particularly promising for developing countries.
13
Viable development of fish farming implies a thorough knowledge of the genetic resources of local
wild fish (e.g. the geographical distribution of
species and the genetic structure of fish populations), and the expression and determining factors of
breeding periods, fertility, growth and other life
traits. The basic essentials apart, this knowledge also
provides crucial practical information for selecting
species or populations for farming, designing
suitable production systems, managing breeding
stock and assessing the impact of fish farming on
natural genetic resources.
Integrated approach to fish farming
IRD research in Indonesia and the Bolivian Amazon
includes all these aspects. Fish species are particularly
diverse in these two regions. Their systematics is not
well known, and fish farming is largely based on the use of introduced species or populations.
In Indonesia, the department has been working since 1996 in partnership with the Research Institute for
Freshwater Fisheries and with the support of the European Commission and the French foreign ministry.
The research concerns the Clariidae and Pangasiidae, two families of catfish with great farming potential. Four species new to science have been discovered. The systematics of both families has been
considerably refined and the geographical distribution of the species mapped. The new identification keys
established will enable fish farmers to manage their stocks better. For example, fish farmers in Sumatra
were interested in what was regarded as a single species called Pangasius pangasius. But P. pangasius has
proven to be a mixture of three distinct species, which explains some incoherence in their biological
characteristics and will now enable farmers to avoid accidentally producing sterile hybrids.
The research has also found that several local species are of interest for developing and diversifying fish
farm output. For example, Pangasius farming in Indonesia has hitherto been based on P. hypopthalmus,
a species introduced from Thailand. Now, we have found that a local species, P. djambal, has more
favourable farming characteristics, and we have mastered the whole of its biological cycle in captivity;
within a few years it could become the main catfish farmed in Indonesia. In another work strand, a
management protocol for cultivated strains of P. djambal has been drawn up, taking account of the
genetic differences between wild populations on the islands of Sumatra, Borneo and Java. In particular,
we now know that transferring native Sumatran individuals to Borneo should be banned, since this could
lead to irreversible genetic mixtures between populations that have very different farming characteristics.
In Bolivia, research began in 2001 in partnership with the universities of San Andrès and San Simon, on
species chosen from three families of economically useful fish, the Pimelodidae, Cichlidae and
Serrasalminae. Variations in observed life traits are identified, taking into account fluctuations in environmental factors in the rios of the Bolivian Amazon floodplain, and are then analysed according to the
geographical origin and genetic structure of the populations. The first results show that the genetic
structure of two species of Pimelodidae, Pseudoplatystoma tigrinum and P. fasciatum, is related to the
surroundings in which these populations live (clear water versus white water rios). There proves to be
wider genetic variability in the white water populations, which may make them more suitable as
cultivated strains. The data gathered will help to improve control of fish farm production cycles and help
identify the best populations for building up breeding stock. As the species studied are widespread in
Latin America, the results will be of benefit to other countries besides Bolivia.
Contact: Marc Legendre - Marc.Legendre@mpl.ird.fr
> example
14
Bacteriophagic nematodes and nitrogen flows
To rehabilitate degraded or “exhausted” farmland
and make it fit for crops again, fertility must be
restored by improving on the soil’s biological
functioning.
15
Microbes play a major role in the functioning of a
soil, as they are involved in regulating nutrient flows.
The Ibis research unit and its northern and southern
partners1 start from the basic hypothesis that the
physico-chemical and biological components of the
soil are determinant for the functioning of soil
microbes. Taking this ecological approach, the Ibis
project is studying interactions between edaphic
factors and particular living things in the soil:
microbes (bacteria, heterotrophic and mycorrhizal
fungi, actinomycetes), soil “engineers” (termites),
nematodes that parasite on plants, and free-living nematodes that predate on micro-organisms.
The focus of the work, carried out on several land types2, is control of the nitrogen cycle. A viable
farming system requires the available nutrients in the soil to be properly utilized in their entirety. Nutrients
should flow through the soil-plant system on a “just-in-time” basis.
The mineral forms of nitrogen (ammonia and nitrate) are indispensable for plant growth. So everything
begins with a study of the role of soil micro-organisms in producing mineral forms of nitrogen. The
abundance, diversity and activity of these micro-organisms are affected by predators. IRD researchers have
shown that the behaviour, nature and abundance of these predators, hence of their prey, and hence
nitrogen flows, are affected in different ways by different farming practices.
In Senegal, we tested the effect of the most abundant bacteriophagic nematodes (Cephalobus,
Acrobeloides and Zeldia) on microbial behaviour and nitrogen flows. Results from 2001 show that these
nematodes have similar effects, only the intensity of these effects varying between species. They reduce
microbial density by 40%, but increase the activity of the microbial community by 20%. By changing the
structure of the microbe community, their presence affects the flow of nitrogen in the soil: mineral
nitrogen content tends to diminish (mainly ammonium, -20%) while plant biomass and nitrogen in the
plant increase (by 12% and 18% respectively) as a result of the nematodes’ activity.
At present we are trying to identify the microbe communities ingested by the nematodes (their genetic
and functional diversity), and their role in the various stages of the nitrogen cycle.
Contacts: Jean-Luc Chotte - Jean-Luc.Chotte@ird.sn
Cécile Villenave - villenav@biomserv.univ-lyon1.fr
(1) UMR 5557 CNRS/Ecologie Microbienne/UCB Lyon 1, UMR 7625 CNRS/Paris-VI University/École Normale
Supérieure, CNRS/INRA/CEA rhizosphere ecology laboratory in Cadarache, Dakar University departments of animal
and plant biology, Senegal Institute of Agricultural Research (ISRA) soil biochemistry laboratory.
(2) Semi-arid savanna in Senegal, the semi-arid and sub-humid area of agroforestry systems and intensive cropping in Burkina Faso, mine sites in New Caledonia, intensively farmed sugar cane fields in South Africa.
> example
Proliferations of planktonic algae in shallow tropical
aquatic ecosystems affect the trophic relations
between the different aquatic communities and
degrade the quality of the ecosystem, especially
where the proliferating bacteria are cyanobacteria.
The research unit on the determining factors of algal
bloom (UR098) is trying to identify the factors
responsible for these blooms, whether natural or
caused by human activity, to improve assessment of
the associated risks.
Cyanobacteria and toxic risk
Phytoplankton communities are usually very diverse.
The species in them adapt to their environment by
maximising their access to light and minimising the
risk of being eaten by herbivores. Different types of
adaptive response are juxtaposed in time and space,
from the plasticity of each cell to structural changes
in the community as a whole.
The dynamics of algal populations are controlled by the available nutrient supply and its consumption at
all levels of the food chain. These two types of regulation are not mutually exclusive, and are probably
always present, but opinions differ as to the relative importance of each.
To take nutrient supply and environmental factors first, Lake Sélingué in Mali provides an example. At the
end of the dry season phytoplankton production in the lake is limited by the low levels of nitrogen and
phosphorus in the water. This is due to sustained stratification of the water column and competition
between the phytoplankton and bacterial communities for access to nutrients. In many other places,
however, increasing use of farm inputs or the discharge of untreated sewage causes excessive nutrient
supply in aquatic environments.
The other factor, nutrient consumption, includes both browsing and predation. For example, in the
reservoirs of the semi-arid Brazilian Nordeste, phytoplankton and cyanobacteria predominate wherever
there are omnivorous fish eating zooplankton, algae and detritus; but where the biomass of fish-eating
fish is greater, this tendency declines.
Intense and varied selection pressures result in a loss of diversity, usually with a few species predominating. Studying and prospecting in Brazil, Mali, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal and Burkina Faso, we have observed
the proliferation of cyanobacteria of the genus Cylindrospermopsis, which has a high toxic potential,
producing both liver toxins and nervous system toxins. When Cylindrospermopsis proliferates in drinking
water supply reservoirs, there is a danger to human and animal health from ingestion, inhalation or
mere contact.
Apart from monitoring water quality and the use of natural aquatic resources, research of this kind can
help to improve fishery management. For example, the relative proportions of plankton-eating and
fish-eating fish, and hence the structure of the pelagic food chain, can be altered by selective fishing,
stocking with young fish or restoring foreshore habitats. This kind of management can improve the
quality of water for human consumption by reducing algal and cyanobacterial biomass while increasing
fishery yields.
Contact: Robert Arfi - arfi@dakar.ird.sn
> example
16
Adaptation in insect crop pests
In the course of time, tropical plant-eating insects
have adapted to crops introduced into the intertropical zone. In Africa south of the Sahara, for example,
several noctuid moths of the genii Busseola and
Sesamia, which bore into the stems of wild grasses
and cultivated gramineae such as sorghum, have
adapted to maize and become the main pests of this
crop. Scientists from the research unit on biodiversity
and evolution of plant-insect-pest-antagonist
relations (UR072) are working to gain a deeper
understanding of this adaptation. We are investigating several questions: why are these species the only
ones to adapt? What are the genetic or ecological
factors that make adaptation possible? When and
where did the phenomenon occur, and what are its
consequences for the biology and ecology of the
insect concerned?
In East and Southern Africa, Busseola fusca is a major maize pest above 900 metres altitude; yet in
West Africa, it is a major pest at lower altitudes. This uneven distribution suggests that there are
geographically and ecologically distinct populations.
The purpose of this work will be to reveal the biotic and abiotic factors affecting the distribution and
abundance of B. fusca and estimate the ecological and genetic differences between populations living far
apart geographically or in different biotopes. We also want to determine whether differentiation between
populations of the pest leads some populations of its main antagonist, the parasitoid wasp Cotesia
sesamiae, to adapt to the local ecological particularities of the host and so to diversify in its turn.
In 2001 we focused on two main issues. The first was the precise mapping of B. fusca populations in
Kenya, where the team’s researchers are working with the International Centre for Insect Physiology and
Ecology (ICIPE, Nairobi), and in Benin, Togo and Ghana in West Africa, where they are collaborating with
the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA, Cotonou). The second was to develop molecular
markers for studying the genetic structures of Busseola fusca and Cotesia sesamiae.
In Kenya, analysis of the data gathered shows that B. fusca’s range is larger than expected, and confirms
that this is by far the predominant species of stem borer at altitudes above 1500 metres. In Benin, Togo
and Ghana, the first results show that B. fusca is present in the mesophilic semi-deciduous forest zone,
as in Côte d’Ivoire.
Molecular analysis, based on comparing mitochondrial genes, has revealed a high degree of gene
sequence polymorphism between geographically distant populations (Benin v. Kenya), and also between
Kenyan populations, which suggests that the genetic differentiation occurred long ago, probably before
the introduction of maize or even the domestication of sorghum. Several molecular markers that could
be used to study the genetic structure of populations of C. sesamiae were assessed, and we used one of
them to design a quick molecular test that distinguishes between C. sesamiae and C. flavipes, a species
introduced into East Africa several years ago to control a different stem borer. This is a major advance for
studying the genetics of C. sesamiae populations.
A physio-behavioural study of interactions between borers and gramineae is planned, to complement the
genetic and ecological approaches.
The programme is training African students, especially through thesis supervision.
Contact: Jean-François Silvain - silvain@pge.cnrs-gif.fr
> example
17
Chapter 1
In 2001 the Societies and Health department (DSS, département sociétés et santé) established its 34 research and service units. The department’s mission is to analyse the human
and social factors of development, both with regard to events as they occur and taking a
long-term view of demographic, territorial, economic and cultural change.
Societies and health
Within the department, complementarity between
disciplines enables us, in collaboration with our partners,
to propose viable development strategies.
Health
On the health side, the department’s work mainly
concerns the tropical zone, and has the following three
main themes:
• Biomedicine. Priorities in this field are the search for
prophylactic and therapeutic drugs against the major
endemic diseases: parasite diseases such as malaria,
trypanosomiasis, bilharzia, leishmaniasis; tuberculosis,
the main bacterial endemic; and the viral diseases AIDS,
dengue fever and measles. Scientists from several disciplines are involved, mainly molecular biologists and
entomologists. We are analysing the many factors
involved in the current increase in outbreaks of some
endemic diseases– “natural” factors, particularly drug
resistance, and social factors such as political instability
and increasing resource scarcity. We are also conducting
research into the so-called “emerging” diseases, which
are in fact caused by known viruses but with modified
clinical profiles. One example is hemorrhagic dengue
fever in Southeast Asia.
• Public health and health economics. In this field
medicine intersects with the anthropological approach to
grasp all the aspects of fast-changing demand for health
care, and with socio-economic analysis for the quantitative
and qualitative assessment of health provision. Among the
main research themes are interrelations between health
risks and environment, actors in health systems, and
representations of the body, illness and health.
• Nutrition. IRD researchers are studying the characteristics and determinants of undernutrition, its repercussions on children’s development, and palliatives and
preventive measures. Here again medicine and the social
sciences come together in a necessary and fruitful
collaboration. Nutrition and malnutrition are addressed
from several angles: physiology, biochemical research
and also surveys on food, dietary habits and families’
strategies against malnutrition.
Social science
In the social science field, some of the cross-linking
themes are as follows:
• Dynamics of rural societies. In the face of the often
rigorous conditions of their natural surroundings,
so-called “traditional” farming societies
18
Chapter 1
Societies and health
demonstrate day by day their ability to react
both to environmental change and to economic and
politico-legal changes generated by the national and
international context. Their ability to adapt, innovate and
make development strategy decisions is still largely
underestimated. IRD research has highlighted this
capacity in research that examines the link between how
these societies function and the way they use resources,
especially the most scarce and precious of resources,
water. The work has also shown the complexity of
interactions between different actors involved in the regulation of land tenure, use of irrigation works, adoption
of new farming practices or techniques, etc.
• Urban issues. Now that a clear majority of the world’s
population live in towns, the great cities of the North and
South alike pose problems in areas that range from environment, health and spatial management to transport,
security and corruption. IRD is analysing risks in urban
conditions, the spatial, social and economic histories and
strategies of individuals and families, the problems of city
governance (from the viewpoint of central, regional and
local government and international organisations), land
use, and care of urban heritage.
• Mobility. Mobility is an essential feature of modern
life, and this issue arises in one way or another in many
research projects. There is the forced mobility of refugees
and the “voluntary” mobility of people seeking work.
There is mobility as part of individual or family strategy,
rural outmigration and the return to the home village,
mobility between or within cities, emigration that generates minorities or diasporas, the mobility of the most
disadvantaged groups, and the “brain drain”. Mobility is
the result of urban or rural poverty or the aspirations of
new categories of citizens. It generates new hazards,
especially with regard to health, but also new opportunities. It is a factor in spatial, social and identity recomposition in the South as in the North.
• Poverty and development economics. The adoption
of poverty reduction policies has highlighted the complexity of the problem of defining and measuring this
multi-dimensional phenomenon. Calling on every branch
of the social sciences, the theoretical and methodological contributions of the department’s researchers
is helping to develop more pertinent concepts and
instruments for investigating, analysing and monitoring
poverty.
19
Refugees and the environment
Civil wars in Africa and elsewhere plunge whole
regions into economic and humanitarian tragedy.
Among the victims of these tragedies over the past
ten, twenty or thirty years are the millions of
refugees who gather en masse on the borders of
their home countries. The media take a look, then
look away. In the South, host countries are often
incapable of taking on their shoulders alone the
burden and cost of humanitarian aid; they turn to
the international community and non-governmental
organisations to meet these populations’ basic needs
for water, food, health, security and education.
Given the scale of the refugee problem and the consequences of conflict within the wider context of
international migration, the IRD could hardly avoid
taking these questions as a focus for research. The
Institute offered its services to the UN High Commission for Refugees (HCR), and a team of IRD
researchers joined the humanitarian aid community, investigating the problem from a geographical and
environmental angle. The situation was especially favourable for this kind of collaboration with the HCR
since environmental protection had become increasingly important in diplomatic relations with host
countries. Environmental damage blamed on refugees has become a hotly debated issue and a negotiating point over the amount and type of aid provided, with host countries threatening to send refugees
back to their home countries.
In many cases there are no precise, up-to-date maps of the regions concerned, but such maps are indispensable for environmental analysis, choosing reception sites, logistical management of the camps and
monitoring the situation. First in Kenya and then in Uganda, the IRD team reconnoitred and conducted
surveys so as to supply large-scale maps of refugee camps in Kenya and farming areas in Uganda. All the
latest technology was put to use, from GPS and airborne digital video recording to high-resolution
satellite imagery.
With financial support from the Fonds français pour le développement mondial, the images were
processed and interpreted with the aid of regular field trips and the help of NGO staff. In this way we
mapped with great precision the farming areas granted to the refugees, with soil types, vegetation,
population and other parameters. The various data strata were integrated in a geographical information
system, which we put at the disposal of the HCR and the Ugandan government.
The programme was run in collaboration with a CIRAD team working in Guinea. As well as the environmental situation, it should familiarise the HCR staff with the methods we used so that they can be
disseminated to all parts of the world where settlement of refugee populations in “humanitarian sanctuaries” becomes a problem for physical planning and management. As long as humanitarian aid is a
substitute for political solution to conflicts, it has to be effective. For the refugees, the local population
and the host government, this is essential. And scientists have a part to play in that.
Contact : Luc Cambrézy - cambrezy@bondy.ird.fr
20
> example
Dengue fever: an emerging virus disease
Some of the emerging virus diseases, many of which are transmissible by
animals (zoonoses) or mosquitoes or ticks (the arboviruses) are exceptionally
serious, causing encephalitis or hemorrhagic fever. Some, like Ebola fever, have
emerged with a greatly increased epidemic potential.
Dengue fever viruses have become prevalent in the tropics and sub-tropics since
1950, when hemorrhagic fever syndrome first appeared. They are now a
constant worry in developing countries, where medical provisions are often
inadequate. Two hundred million people are exposed to the dengue fever virus, which can be fatal in
children. There is also a real danger that it may spread to the North.
In Thailand, the IRD and the University of Mahidol have set up the Research Centre for Viral Diseases. It
is headed by the IRD’s research unit on emerging viral diseases and information systems (UR034) and is
focusing primarily on dengue fever and viral encephalitis. Using geographical information systems, the
team have identified epidemic risk indicators for the dengue fevers. They have also reported on new
epidemiological profiles: continuous epidemic transmission through a vector, and discontinuous epidemic
transmission from person to person. The scientists are also studying the genetics of strains isolated from
cases of viral encephalitis. And they have shown that during epidemics, there is intense “silent” circulation of the virus without clinical manifestations.
The IRD team has also been studying an attenuated tetravalent live vaccine against dengue fever developed by partners in the Centre for Vaccine Development. The team has demonstrated the molecular stability of the vaccine strains both in humans and in Aedes aegypti, the virus’s main vector. In collaboration
with Aventis, the private company that developed the vaccine, spatial strategies have been produced for
measuring the efficacy of the vaccination campaigns in Thailand. Studies of the bio-ecology of the
vectors have found relevant indicators for vector population control. In 2001 a Research Centre for
dengue fever vectors was created; it means to become a research, training and reference centre, with
annual international seminars supported by the IRD’s Support and Training department.
In Brazil, in collaboration with that country’s National Health Foundation, it has been shown that dengue
fevers are emerging in rural areas, and their dynamics are under study.
In Senegal, a major study of the selvatic cycle of the dengue fever virus seemed essential. The IRD and its
partners at the Pasteur Institute in Dakar are studying this poorly-understood phenomenon in eastern
Senegal. Although primates are recognised as potential wild reservoirs, their role in the maintenance and
emergence of the virus has still to be assessed. IRD scientists are also studying the efficacy of Aedes egypti
strains of various origins as vectors of wild and epidemic strains of the dengue virus.
In France, the Emerging Viruses Unit at the Université de la Méditerannée is developing and transferring
diagnostic tools and is performing molecular monitoring on viral strains. The laboratory has shown that
recombination can occur in the dengue virus in the wild.
The Medical Acarology Laboratory at the IRD centre in Montpellier joined UR034 in 2001 to take part in
work on transmission of the flaviviruses, a family of major human pathogenic viruses that includes
dengue, yellow fever, tick-borne encephalitis and West Nile virus.
Contact: Jean-Paul Gonzalez - frjpg@mucc.mahidol.ac.th
> example
21
Malnutrition, breast-feeding and infant health
Malnutrition in young children is common in developing
countries. It is not only damaging for the child’s development, it also greatly increases the risk of infectious
diseases and mortality and plays a considerable part in
the damage done by HIV infection.
22
Emaciation and retarded growth affect children of 6 to
18 months old particularly; this is the weaning period,
when the child’s diet is becoming more varied, first with
food to supplement the mother’s milk, then with definitive weaning around 18 to 24 months. This is the
period when malnutrition may occur as a number of
environmental factors interact with diet – mainly whatever infectious diseases are prevalent in the area, and
the social context. This observation has led the World
Health Organisation (WHO) to adopt the recommendation that children be breast-fed to 2 years of age or over. In 2001, the WHO extended its recommendation on exclusive breast-feeding to cover the fist 6 months of life for all children in the world.
In 2001, the IRD’s work helped to terminate a controversy that had been raging over the optimum duration of breast-feeding. Since the 1980s, a link between prolonged breast-feeding and malnutrition in
young children in developing countries had been highlighted a number of times. A number of studies in
Africa and Latin America had shown that those children that breast-fed the longest were also the smallest and thinnest. This was not because mothers who breast-fed for longest were poorer than others, nor
were there any other socio-economic casual factors. Published recommendations stated that children
should be weaned by 18 months at latest, and children suffering from malnutrition at no later than 12
months.
This supposed negative effect of breast-feeding was in contradiction its the known benefits (less diarrhoea and pneumopathy) and survival in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Based on a study by IRD
researchers in some thirty villages in the rural area of Niakhar in Senegal, several of the Institute’s nutritional experts put forward an “inverse causality” hypothesis: not that prolonged breast-feeding caused
malnutrition, but that mothers who saw signs of malnutrition or retarded growth in their baby at the 9th
or 10th month, continued to breast-feed for longer in the hope of improving its condition. Nutritional
deficiencies were the cause, not the consequence, of prolonged breast-feeding.
To confirm this hypothesis, the researcher ran a survey among 500 mothers in the same part of Senegal,
to discover their real reasons for deciding to wean their baby or not. It was found that the size, health
and appetite of the baby was a prime factor in the decision: breast-feeding was prolonged if the baby
was “small and thin”, if food was short, or if the baby was ill and refused the family food.
The researchers also discovered that between the ages of 18 and 24 months, allowing for socio-economic
differences, the height gain of the breast-fed babies was faster on average than that of the weaned
babies. However, children who were very tall at the age of 3, had been breast-fed for a shorter time than
average, and very small toddlers had been breast-fed longer. But these size differences were not induced
by the feeding regime: they had already existed at two or three months of age.
With the general acknowledgement that the mother’s milk is best for a child’s health, research now has
to take into account new negative factors such as the transmission of HIV via the mother’s milk and exposure through breast-milk to toxins from a degraded environment – problems that are becoming more
acute as a result of the development process.
> example
Contact: François Simondon kirsten.simondon@mpl.ird.fr
Poverty reduction strategies
Confronted with worsening poverty in many parts of the world, the failure of the structural adjustment
policies and challenges to their legitimacy, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund have now
made poverty reduction the goal of their actions. Since 1999, developing countries wishing to benefit
from conditional financial aid from these organisations, or seeking debt relief under the heavily indebted
poor countries (HIPC) initiative, have to prepare a Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP). The entire
international community quickly adopted this goal, and poverty reduction is now the core issue in development policies everywhere. In early 2002, nearly 70 poor countries had begun the process.
Researchers in the Cipre research unit (UR047) have just published a set of papers1, the first synthesis to
be published on this subject. The consensus that has grown up around the new poverty reduction strategies raises many questions. Has the policy content really changed or is this just window-dressing? To what
extent can these policies attain their poverty reduction objectives? The approach adopted, which consists
of organising a participative process to work out policy, is a major innovation: but will it really strengthen
democracy and make policy more effective? And how are these policies to be monitored and assessed?
It is too early to draw definitive conclusions – two years after their launch these policies have not yet been
implemented in the field. However, researchers have made a first critical examination of them. As regards
actual content, the recommended policies are not very innovative and often look like a continuation of
earlier policies. The much-deplored lack of participation merely reflects the structural weakness of the
intermediary bodies and organised civil society. Ownership of the new policies by the beneficiary States
also poses problems: sometimes they are seen merely as additional conditions for obtaining aid. And
despite the donors’ apparent unanimity, these policies are likely to strengthen the hegemony of the
Bretton Woods institutions, which have to cope with a major contradiction between the principle of
selective aid they have been promoting for several years, and the urgent need for debt relief for all the
countries concerned. Lastly, arrangements for monitoring and evaluation, which were supposed to play
a central role in managing the policy, are one of its main blind spots.
But despite this uncompromising analysis, the common principles of the HIPC and PRSP initiatives do constitute a radical break with past practice and as such are harbingers of hope. They offer a real possibility
of changing the nature of public policy and international aid, making it more helpful for development
and calling on wider citizen participation. There is no guarantee that this opportunity will be seized: that
depends on the capacity of social forces to work in that direction, and therefore on local situations. But
the formal conditions for citizens’ opinions to find expression have never been so favourable. The
outcome is by no means fore-ordained.
Contact: François Roubaud - Roubaud@dial.prd.fr
(1) Les nouvelles stratégies internationales de lutte
contre la pauvreté, ed. J-P. Cling, M. Razafindrakoto,
F. Roubaud. Editions Economica, Paris, 2002.
23
> example
Chapter 1
In 2001, the Expertise and Consulting department (DEV, département expertise et valorisation) continued to find economic applications for IRD research findings at the same pace as
the previous year, applying for patents, signing consultancy contracts and forming one business enterprise. The department also began discussions within the Institute on how to formalise a quality approach to research.
Expertise and Consulting
Aid for business start-ups
Following the passing of the 1999 law on innovation in
France, the IRD launched four new business ventures in
2000. In 2001, one business start-up application by an
IRD researcher was successfully completed. The new
firm, based in Bolivia, enables local partners to benefit
directly from knowledge transfer in a very promising
field: screening for Chagas disease.
The start-ups created earlier by IRD researchers are still
on course. 2ie Technologies increased it capital in 2001,
recruited five engineers and technicians and finalised its
products; ApoH Technologies merged with two other
biotechnology firms and now has a very credible position
in the health diagnosis market.
with its statutes, split into two entities, GénoplanteRecherche and Génoplante-Valor. The latter is a simplified joint stock company (SAS) that will now own the
patents resulting from Génoplante research. The formation of Génoplante Valor marks the IRD’s first foray into
company share ownership.
A successful technology transfer that deserves mention is
a patent applied for in 1997 in India, for a method of
boosting fertility in tea plantations using nematodes. The
patent was extended in 2001, and the IRD and its Indian
collaborators went to meet potential partners with a
view to transferring the technology to China. A project is
under way to establish a demonstration station among
the tea plantations of Yunnan.
Collegial expertise
Patents
With six more patents applied for in 2001 – four of them
in co-ownership with private enterprise or other public
research establishments – the IRD’s portfolio of basic
patents stood at 45 at the end of the year, corresponding
to 800 national patents. Over the last ten years, the IRD
has made an average of four or five patent applications
a year, so from this point of view 2001 was a good year.
IRD exploited its patents in 2001 through seven application contracts, mainly with such renowned companies as
the Compagnie Générale du Rhône, Aventis and the
Pierre Fabre Group.
In September 2001, the GIS Génoplante, in accordance
Collegial expertise contracts are a particularly promising
tool for transferring knowledge gleaned through
research to users in the economic and social spheres.
With this method, when decision-makers consult the
IRD, it takes only six months to make a complete review
and evaluation of scientific knowledge on a subject.
In 2001, the IRD published two collegiate expertise
reports in its specialised publications series: one dealing
with mercury in the Amazon basin and the other with
malaria in Cameroon. The final report on “Mercury in
the Amazon: the respective roles of humans and the
environment, and health risks” was officially delivered
in Cayenne on 19 April 2001. The second report, “Major
24
civil engineering works and vector diseases in
Cameroon”, was published in late November 2001 and
officially submitted to the Cameroon authorities in April
2001 in Yaoundé.
Two other collegial expertise reviews were launched in
2001, concerning the scientific diasporas (“How can
developing countries benefit from expatriate scientists
and engineers for their development?”) and dengue
fever in French Guiana and the French Antilles
(“Optimising hemorrhagic dengue fever control in the
French Departments of America”).
Three others made progress during the year: “Trachoma
control in sub-Saharan Africa”, “Organic farming in
Martinique” and “Resource management on the Niger
River in Mali and national physical planning”.
Consultancy
In 2001 the IRD signed 44 consultancy contracts.
Thirteen concerned France and Europe, 18 the French
overseas dependencies, 8 Africa, 5 South America,
2 Asia or the Pacific, and 1 the Middle East.
The contracts covered a vast range of subjects. To give
just two examples: at the request of the French Overseas
Secretariat, IRD geographer Jean-Claude Roux headed a
survey on the economic potential and conditions for selfreliant development in the Wallis and Futuna Islands; and
Pier Luigi Rossi of the Information and Communication
Unit (DIC) led a survey on digitising the scientific assets
of Senegal’s research institutes.
The IRD has a long tradition of hydrological research, and more than fifteen years ago developed two
database management software packages in this field, called Hydrom and Pluviom. The engineering and
hydrological observatories service unit (US019), under Bernard Thébé, brought all the IRD’s experience in
this field to bear in developing the new software package.
In 1989, IRD scientists discovered a bacterium, Bacillus
thermoamylovorans, in palm wine in Africa. Yannick
Combet-Blanc studied the bacillus for a thesis he submitted in 1995, and discovered that it has an unusual
metabolism that could be harnessed to produce lactic
acid in quantity from sugar-rich organic waste. With
Anvar’s support to develop the now patented process,
the IRD set about looking for partners. The prospects
the bacterium opens up were publicised on France Info’s daily “Enterprise partners” programme in
September 1999. That was how the researchers made contact with Episucre, a subsidiary of France’s third
biggest sugar manufacturer Erstein. The first trials, run in April 2000 on three types of sugar-rich liquid
waste, soon confirmed the efficacy of the process and its high yield in lactic acid: 100 g/l. Furthermore,
the bacterium grows at 47 to 58°C, and these high temperatures prevent the contamination by
unwanted micro-organisms that is a common problem with lactic fermentation.
The CNR, for its part, has a network of 120 measurement points on the Rhône and its main tributaries,
and a software package called Thalie, developed in the early 1990s to manage the network, process the
data and make it available to its customers. The CNR has used this experience to develop a software for
managing a hydrological network in Paraguay.
Hydromet can be adapted to the customer’s specific requirements. It is available in French, English and
Spanish, selling for about 7,600 euros for a single station license and 30,500 euros for a multi-station
license. The IRD and CNR provide the necessary training for their own customers and partners,
independently. All the data managed by Pluviom and Hydrom (thousands of station-years in countries
where the IRD works) can easily be transferred to Hydromet, which also has added statistical processing
functions, bigger capacity, and proven security. For the IRD, customers for the new software package will
be mainly in Southern countries, for major programmes under Whycos, the WHO’s World Hydrological
Cycle Observing System.
Contacts : Bernard Thébé - Bernard.Thebe@mpl.ird.fr
Patrick Raous - Patrick.Raous@mpl.ird.fr
Until now, Bolivia had to import tests to detect Chagas disease. Henceforth, they will be produced locally
by the firm Andilab, set up under a partnership between the IRD and the pharmacy faculty at San Andres
University (UMSA).
Chagas disease is caused by a parasite, Trypanosoma cruzi, transmitted by a species of assassin bug. Some
24 million people around the world are thought to be infected, and an estimated 15% of Bolivia’s population carry the parasite. Screening is especially important, because the disease lies dormant in more
than half of the people infected, without causing the characteristic digestive and cardiac problems. These
symptomless cases help to spread the disease.
Until now, only imported tests were available – and very irregularly available – on the Bolivian market, at
prices between 130 and 200 dollars. In a partnership between the IRD and the UMSA pharmacy faculty,
Eric Deharo, a biologist at the IRD’s UR43, and Fernando Vargas, a Bolivian technician, developed a new
diagnostic kit. It will be produced by Andilab and marketed under the name of “Chagatest”. These tests,
available immediately, will be only half the price of imported tests.
To market the product, a license contract was signed between the IRD, the UMSA pharmacy faculty and the
new firm. Under this partnership, local researchers have the benefit of a significant knowledge transfer.
The market is estimated at 100,000 tests a year. Customers are the Bolivian health ministry’s national
Chagas programme, blood banks and hospitals, private analysis laboratories and clinics (the disease can
be transmitted by blood transfusion, or from mother to baby via the placenta).
Contact : Éric Deharo - plantibba@megalink.com
> examples
The CRBA, meanwhile, is developing a process to polymerise lactic acid so as to produce biodegradable
plastics. In February 2001, the three partners signed an agreement. The fermentation process is now
fully mastered and a pilot unit is to be built at the sugar refinery; it will be soon possible to envisage
marketing biodegradable plastics for packaging, plastic sheeting for agricultural use, etc.
Contact : Yannick Combet-Blanc - Combet@esil.univ-mrs.fr
25
Coming soon: lactic plastic!
In October 2001, the IRD microbiology laboratory in
Marseille won the Research Innovation prize from the
radio station France Info and Anvar, the French innovation agency. The prize is for the three-sided partnership between the IRD, the manufacturing firm
Episucre and the CNRS artificial biopolymers research
centre (CRBA) in Montpellier.
Setting up in business in Bolivia
Hydrology software package
The Compagnie nationale du Rhône (CNR) and the IRD issued their jointly developed software package
Hydromet in November 2001. Hydromet takes hydrometeorological data from data capture stations to
store them, process them and make them available.
Chapter 1
The mission of the Support and Training department (DSF) is to support and train scientific
communities in the South. This primarily means helping to strengthen the research capacity
of partner countries in the South, reducing the isolation of their researchers and helping
them find their place in the international scientific community.
Support and training
Scientific knowledge, research programmes and, not
least, a stable scientific community are determining
factors in a society’s economic and social development.
To meet the needs of scientific communities in the South,
the DSF proposes various types of support, all based on
the rigorous selection and follow-up of proposals
designed to enhance collective competencies.
Encouraging the collective approach
Cooperation with scientific partners in the South, a
continuing priority at the IRD, is now part of a wider
trend in scientific exchanges resulting from the globalisation of research. Its purpose is to help scientific
communities in the South play a full part in the major
areas of current research.
The support and training function has two main objectives: strengthening research teams or communities, and
enabling researchers to learn the researcher’s job rather
than simply acquiring knowledge.
The DSF has opted to make the team the central focus of
its action programmes, because with teamwork, competencies can be structured and sustainability ensured.
Once a team achieves critical mass, it becomes a focus
for accumulating and developing knowledge and qualifications, an obvious benefit to scientific institutions in the
South and to their societies in general.
Meeting needs, helping independent
partners
To help strengthen scientific communities in the countries of the South, the DSF looks at existing capacities
and projects initiated by partners. Consequently, the
support procedures take the form of calls for applications
with no restriction as to theme. By allowing a team the
freedom to define its own training needs and field of
research, the DSF can measure the motivation of its
partners (whether researchers or institutions) and assess
how feasible the projects are locally. This approach is also
intended to transfer responsibility to the partners and
encourage their independence.
Synergy between different kinds
of focused support
One team may wish to develop its structure, while
another may need to train its technicians or engineers.
The DSF realises that there is no single pattern for training and developing scientific teams, and focuses its support by using various kinds of aid in synergy, to advance
long-term projects.
Developing appropriate tools
Putting the team at the centre of the support system
26
means that the criteria for allocating aid to individuals
must take account of the potential for the training
received to be used locally in a group situation, to meet
more collective needs.
The IRD has three “tools” for team support:
• Calls for applications to Aire Développement, a partnership
of scientific interest (GIS) set up by eight French research
bodies to provide financial and scientific support for research
teams working in poor or deteriorating conditions;
• Calls for applications to Corus, a programme for
cooperation with the “priority solidarity zone” countries,
financed by the French foreign ministry, which is the
ultimate supervising body, and coordinated by the IRD.
The aim here is to consolidate the academic competencies of partners in the South through collaborative work
with academic teams in the North;
• Calls for applications from “young associated teams”,
intended to encourage the emergence of teams of
young researchers through scientific work with the IRD’s
research and service units.
The DSF also proposes individual support for students
from countries in the South. Students are trained in
research by joining in scientific activities conducted by
the IRD and its partners. This form of training involves
pre-doctoral internships, research grants and postdoctoral scholarships.
Chapter 1
Support and training
Researchers, engineers and technicians from
the South working in association with the IRD’s research
and service units also receive in-service training to
acquire new skills or prepare for career change. Other
forms of support for individuals include short-term
scientific exchanges and South-to-South mobility.
Institutional support goes to specific projects demonstrating firm commitment by scientific institutions in the
South. The purpose is to stabilise medium-term development of the project: creating teaching facilities (local
doctoral schools, repeatable training modules, university
twinning, etc.), summer and field schools, and associations and networks that put researchers in touch with
one another.
All support is regularly assessed before partnerships are
renewed.
The Support and Training department in figures
Number of grantees (by type of grant)
DEA (graduate diploma)
Doctoral thesis
In-service training
Scientific exchange
Number of research teams supported in 2001
Aire développement (c. 27m€ per team per year)
Corus: programme financed by French foreign ministry
under IRD executive secretariat (c. 19m€ per team per year)
French foreign ministry Africa social sciences programme
jointly run by Codesria and the IRD (c. 27m€ per team per year)
Institutional support 2001 (m€)
Number of training courses supported per year
Teams or centres supported
Seminars and workshops
By way of indication: some 1000 African scientists have benefited from the DSF’s support policy
(all types of support).
27
308
22
166
37
83
79
19
32
28
142
10
65
67
Supporting committed scientists in Congo
The Congolese scientific community – along with the rest of the country – has
faced considerable difficulties for some years now. However, some research
teams and individual researchers have sustained their enthusiasm, and the DSF
has chosen to support them. The DSF’s work in the Congo has produced
practical results, as can be seen from the examples below. It has used its various types of action to foster the emergence of a stable, sustainable Congolese
scientific community working on forest ecology and the environment.
A team of young researchers working on forest ecology
Industrial logging of precious tropical woods (limba and okoume), one of the country’s major resources
since 1940, has taken the best trees from the forests in Mayombe (Kouillou region) and Chaillu (Niari and
Lékoumou regions). To prevent the exhaustion of marketable timber resources, there has been intensive
reforestation in recent years with new, more productive hybrids and clones. But these plantations draw
heavily on soil resources and monoculture considerably distorts the nutrient balance.
So in order to guarantee sustainable production in these new ecosystems, the research group on forest
and environmental ecology (GREFE) has put together a scientific programme on three sites in the Kouillou
region, representing three types of plantation: industrial eucalyptus plantations, semi-industrial limba
plantations, and sections of natural forest.
GREFE was founded in 1999, at the initiative of researchers and lecturer- researchers at Marien-Ngouabi
University and researchers in three Congolese institutions: the general science and technology research
board, the industrial plantation productivity research unit and the national reforestation service. GREFE’s
mandate is to coordinate research in Congo on forest ecology and the environment so as to form an
internationally recognised competence hub.
By bringing together researchers and lecturer-researchers from various disciplines and administrative
structures, GREFE displayed a genuine commitment that attracted the attention of the DSF.
Cooperation between the Congolese researchers and the IRD first took the form of short-stay scientific
exchange visits to the tropical soils ecology laboratory at IRD Bondy. One of these individual visits was
used to finalise an application for support from Aire Développement.
In 2001, Aire Développement’s support to GREFE was supplemented by DSF research grants and shortstay scientific exchange visits to strengthen the research group more effectively.
This complementary aid is a prime example of the DSF’s policy of focusing its support in the way that will
be most effective.
The international dissemination of GREFE research findings (published output, participation in
conferences, etc.) is due to be stepped up in the next few years, integrating these researchers into the
international scientific community.
Support tailored to level of competence
Naturally, Congo possesses other scientific competencies, and we cannot here give an exhaustive list of
all the support the IRD provides in that country. In public health alone, this includes scholarships or grants
for malaria research and health geography, support via Aire Développement for a research team on food
and nutrition, etc.
In these various ways, the DSF does what it can to provide Congolese scientists with the financial
resources they currently lack and to facilitate their contacts with regional scientific communities so that
they can consolidate and upgrade their competencies.
Contact : dsf@paris.ird.fr
> example
28
CELS: a fast-developing research collective in Thailand
Microtrop: support for researcher training in North and South
One of the main reasons why some scientific communities in the South are so poorly represented in the
major international programmes on biodiversity or environment (e.g. soil rehabilitation and greenhouse
gases) is the difficulty they have in acquiring training in some disciplines.
That is why most researchers in the South, in Africa especially, have been left on the sidelines as microbial biology has surged ahead over the last twenty years. Since it requires both theoretical and practical
knowledge, few universities include it among the courses they offer. Only one summer school in the
United States addresses the microbial diversity of different ecosystems – and in twenty years, only one
African researcher has been able to attend.
This situation led two IRD scientists and one Congolese scientist to set up an intensive training course in
the microbial ecology of tropical soils, Microtrop, in Senegal. The training course had several objectives:
apart from giving microbiologists a chance to tackle the complexity of current environmental problems,
Microtrop was open to all researchers in microbiology or biology who might be interested in the role
of bacteria in the soil, and was intended to lead to the formation of a permanent network of young
scientists from North and South.
The IRD’s training and support department saw the potential of this approach from the outset. It would
give Southern researchers an opportunity for high-level scientific training modelled on the training available in the USA, combining lectures with practical field work. And at the same time it would integrate
them into an international network of scientists.
Thanks to logistical help and financial support from the DSF, and also support from Unesco, the University
Agency for Francophony, the West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and
Development, the Federative Research Institute in Lyon and the Fondation internationale pour la France,
the training course was set up in partnership with Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, the Senegalese
Institute of Agricultural Research and Ouagadougou University. From 24 June to 21 July 2001, sixteen
European and African researchers from thirteen different countries immersed themselves in the world of
microbial ecology.
The lectures were illustrated by practical work combining field studies and laboratory experiments, using
microscope observations, classic microbiology and modern molecular biology tools applied to microbial
ecology. Each of the participants developed their own mini research project, designed and carried out
within the brief time Microtrop lasted, on subjects ranging from the response of soil microbe communities to contamination by copper and the functioning of microbial mats in Lake Retba to the localisation
of nitrogen-fixing bacteria in the various fractions of a soil under fallow.
To complete the purely biological aspects of the programme, applied microbial ecology statistics were
addressed and the IFS gave a lecture on fundraising.
Contact: dsf@paris.ird.fr
29
In Thailand, with the introduction of graduate studies courses and university
research, a special fund called the Thai Research Fund has been set up to support lecturer-researchers.
With research being strengthened nationally, Chiang Mai University decided to
develop research in education and labour studies. It created a permanent intra
muros research centre, the Centre for Education and Labour Studies (CELS), with
the broad mandate of analysing relations between education and development
from the standpoints of education science, economic and sociological analysis of the education system,
and the interconnection between the education system and employment.
As both Chiang Mai university and IRD researchers were keen to collaborate on this subject, the Institute
gave its support to the project. The partnership agreement signed in 2000 was for the first phase of
establishing CELS: setting up, within eighteen months, a regular training seminar for lecturer-researchers
in the university wishing to do their research at the CELS.
Under its mandate to support emerging research teams, the DSF stepped in at the design stage and to
help set up the workshops held in 2000 and 2001. We also provided 20,000 euros in finance. The
Societies and Health department gave support on the scientific side.
Taking the approach recommended by the DSF, the workshops focused on research-based training in
research; this made it possible to identify the most motivated Thai lecturer-researchers and measure their
skills.
Although the project started from a few energetic individuals, it gradually drew in a broader public from
academic, political and business circles. The interest expressed by regional administrators in the first two
workshops (on family education strategy and human resource development) and the involvement of
speakers from highly reputed universities gave the project credibility, first within the university’s education department and then within Chiang Mai University as a whole. By the end of the 2001 training
courses (on the role of art in educational reform and on education and economic development) a stable
scientific team had emerged: seven young researchers, a research assistant and six students defined two
main themes for future research: “Thailand at work” and “Thailand in training”.
Integration into the international scientific community also happened quickly: Australian researchers took
part in workshops and helped set up the research work. And contacts were established with other
researchers in Southeast Asia, the Philippines and China.
In view of this very positive outcome, the IRD has decided to prolong its support for this experiment in
setting up a research centre, with the goal that the CELS will be able to operate independently by 2005.
Contact: dsf@paris.ird.fr
> examples
Chapter 1
The main development in scientific information and communication in 2001 was expanded
use of new technologies, giving researchers valuable access to electronic journals and
international databases.
Information and communication
Regarding communication, media coverage of the IRD’s
activities was good, with more than 1,200 articles in the
press. At the same time, some 50 scientific news sheets
and press releases were produced and the circulation of
Sciences au Sud reached 15,000. Several million people
visited the website. A huge number of IRD publications,
maps and photographs were scanned as part of the
“Infothèque” project. Internal communication actions
were also initiated.
areas as us, but who are not confident in French, people
have asked me questions that showed clearly that they
had read the whole article”.
The first issue of Dossiers de Sciences au Sud, on nutrition, was published on World Food Day in October 2001.
This four-page bulletin, in the same format as the main
periodical, featured 15 articles from previous issues of
Sciences au Sud on the themes of food and nutrition in
countries of the South.
Sciences au Sud
Conferences
The IRD put out six issues of the periodical Sciences au
Sud in 2001, including a special bilingual (French/English)
issue on poverty and inequality. Over the year, distribution increased by around 8%, with 5,900 copies distributed in mainland France, 1,200 in the overseas dependencies and some 5,100 in more than 115 countries (51%
in Africa, 24% in Latin America, 6% in the Pacific, 6% in
Europe, 5% in Asia, 4% in North America, 3% in the
Indian Ocean and 0.5% in the Middle East).
Since issue 10 (July-August 2001), Sciences au Sud has
included a page of abstracts in Portuguese, in addition
to the abstracts in English and Spanish. “This has significantly increased readers’ interest,” says Pierre Sabaté,
IRD representative in Brazil. “Readers who are not fluent
in French start with the abstracts, then turn to the articles. At meetings with Brazilians who work in the same
In 2001, the Scientific Information and Communication
unit (DIC) supported around 30 international conferences of key interest for countries in the South. Grants
totalled €217,000. Some of the main conferences were:
International Conference on New Horizons in
Biotechnology – Trivandrum (India)
8th Annual Discussion Meeting on HIV Dynamics and
Evolution – Paris
Past Climate Variability through Europe and Africa –
Aix-en-Provence
Soil Structure, Water and Solute Transport – Bondy
Euro-Mediterranean Partnership: Six Years after
Barcelona – Tunis
Promoting Growth and Development in Children
Under Five – Antwerp
30
Publications
IRD Éditions publishes the scientific work of researchers
at IRD and its main French and foreign partners on the
themes of environment and development in Southern
countries.
Every year, some 20 new titles – some of them published
electronically – are added to the catalogue of recent
titles, which now contains more than 300. Publishing
partnerships with the private and public sectors are a key
component of publishing policy.
In 2001, IRD Éditions published or co-published around
20 new titles.
• 11 titles were published by IRD Éditions: three in the
series “À travers champs”, three in the series “Colloques
et séminaires”, two in the new series “Expertise
collégiale”, one in the series “Latitudes 23”, one, on the
sea fans of New Caledonia, in the series “Faune et flore
tropicales” and a CD-ROM on mosquitoes of Europe in
the series “Didactiques”.
• Four titles were co-published with private partners
(Éditions Mardaga, Karthala, Maisonneuve et Larose, and
John Libbey), in their collections.
• Two titles were co-published with institutional publishers: a volume on apoximis (in English) with the European
Union and the International Maize and Wheat
Improvement Centre (Cimmyt), and an illustrated Atlas
of French Guiana with the CNES, the Institut
d’Enseignement Supérieur de la Guyane and the French
Guiana Regional Council.
• An Atlas of coastal fisheries of Vanuatu, produced by
the cartography laboratory, and a CD-ROM of IRD maps
and references, produced by the documentation unit,
are also distributed by IRD Éditions.
Many publications were produced by “delegated
publishing” in the languages of the countries where the
IRD operates, particularly Latin America.
In 2001, IRD Éditions maintained its policy of support for
the publication of scientific journals: Autrepart (4 issues
a year), Politique africaine (4 issues a year), Aquatic
Living Resources (6 issues a year), Oceanologica Acta
(6 issues a year), Natures-Sciences-Sociétés (4 issues a
year) and Aséanie (2 issues a year).
These journals are all channels of expression for IRD
researchers.
In the second half of 2001, in support of the drive to
review publications policy, renew prospecting for
authors and revitalise the committee, contacts were
made with a view to establishing a network to distribute
publications to bookshops. More of the IRD’s publications should be seen in bookshops over the coming year.
Science and technology for the general
public
The IRD participated in 10 major scientific events aimed
at young people and the public in general. The two
highlights were an exhibition on research in the French
overseas dependencies at the Cité des Sciences et de
l’Industrie in Paris, and “Odyssée 21” in Rouen, during
the tenth Fête de la Science. On the IRD stand at this
event, visitors of all ages learnt about mangroves, tropical soils and sub-soils, the Amazon forest and its canopy,
and climate changes of the past and present.
Through the dozen or so R&D youth clubs in mainland
France, the French overseas dependencies and other
countries, activities specifically targeting young people
were organised around several major themes: water,
climate, soils, forests and food.
The Indigo Base image bank now contains 18,000 photographs, thanks to contributions from more than
200 researchers. Reflecting increasing awareness of the
collection, nearly 3,500 images were lent out to fairs,
exhibitions and 580 publications, including Le Monde,
Larousse Bordas publications and Le Courrier de la
planète. Travelling exhibitions of photographs from the
Indigo Base in IRD centres and representatives’ offices
were again highly successful.
31
Chapter 1
Information and communication
Applied cartography laboratory
IRD researchers’ publications
in the Science Citation Index (SCI)*
The applied cartography laboratory, set up as an IRD resource centre for geographical
information, centralises the IRD’s geographical information (thematic maps, base maps, aerial
and satellite imagery), digital mapping and electronic distribution. Its mission is to combine
proven capacity in publications output with optimum use of its stock of geographical
information documentation, support for research, and training for researchers from the IRD
and its partners and doctoral students (15 interns a year).
The publishing highlight of 2001 was the atlas of coastal fisheries of Vanuatu (hardcopy,
CD-ROM and web versions, with funding from ACCT and the French foreign ministry:
see www.bondy.ird.fr/carto/atlas_vanuatu). A morpho-pedological map of Guinea is also
underway, in the form of a GIS base of thirty 1:200,000 sheets. The website presenting the
laboratory’s work, downloadable software and teaching material is regularly updated
(www.bondy.ird.fr/carto).
On the documentation side, the map library’s 15,000 title catalogue went
online in summer 2001, so the entire documentary file can be viewed on the
web server. The maps produced by the IRD (more than 2,000 titles) are being
scanned to go online as part of the Infothèque project. A related project, an
inventory of the IRD’s large stock of aerial photographs, was launched.
" In 2001, 460 IRD publications in natural sciences and life sciences were recorded in the
Science Citation Index (SCI), and 518 across all the journals analysed by the Institute of
Scientific Information (ISI).
" A survey based on Science Citation Index data shows an increase in the number of IRD publications recorded in the SCI over the past four years – from 350 in 1996, for example. The
number of publications per researcher remained stable in relation to 1999, at 0.77.
" “Expected” visibility, estimated by the impact factor of the journals, is 2.1. But analysis of
actual citation rates for selected disciplines – tropical medicine, oceanography and parasitology – reveals citation rates for articles higher than the impact rates of the journals in
which they were published.
" The proportion of publications co-signed with authors from the South increased again, to
39% in 2001, compared with 24% in 1990 and 38% in 1999.
In 2001, the rate of European cooperation was 21%, compared with 10% in 1990 and 14%
in 1996. The rate of international cooperation rose to 63% in 2000, after 39% in 1990 and
53% in 1996.
Documentation
Publications of IRD researchers in human and social sciences
Research begins and ends with the work of our
documentation staff, retrieving information and recording results.
The documentation unit’s main activity in 2001 was to use
the new information technology to improve its services.
The unit’s website has been expanded and improved
(forms, interfaces, modules for accessing external
resources, common periodicals catalogue).
" Publications in human and social sciences in 2000 break down as: 18 books, 108 articles in
books and papers published in conference proceedings, 1 atlas, 16 books under the scientific direction of the IRD, and 43 original articles in the journals analysed by Current
Contents and the International Bibliography of the Social Sciences.
* The calculations are based on the number of researchers working in the disciplines covered by the SCI,
and therefore exclude the social sciences.
32
Subscriptions were centralised and the work to develop
electronic versions of the scientific journals was stepped
up: more than 1,200 titles are currently available online
in France and in the tropical countries.
The Horizon bibliographical database was expanded and
entry of information in full text form continued. The
base now contains 57,267 references of works by IRD
scientists, with more than 3,000 references added over
the year. The full text of 26,000 documents from the IRD
collection is now available online.
In the tropical countries, in addition to day-to-day
documentary support for the IRD documentation centres, several operations were conducted in 2001. The
collection in Dakar was scanned, and a renovated
information centre on research and development was
opened at the IRD in Ouagadougou.
The survey of existing database provision and the
possibility of extending access to the whole of the IRD
was completed.
Sound and image
The IRD’s contractual policy of audiovisual production,
conservation and distribution was pursued in 2001 in
close collaboration with the scientific departments,
researchers, representatives’ offices abroad and the central administration (the financial and legal units in particular). This policy, offering better scientific and legal
security for the IRD’s audiovisual output, has considerably increased the IRD’s visibility.
33
In 2001, the IRD examined ideas for some 20 productions or co-productions. Several films were completed
and broadcast on French national channels (France 2
and 3, La Cinquième, Arte, Canal + and cable) and
rebroadcast on international networks.
These included:
Sur les traces des mangeurs de coquillages (On the
Trail of the Shellfish Eaters)
Production: Néri production/Canal Horizon/IRD
Les Pêcheurs de trocas en Indonésie, la fin d’une
tradition? (Trochus Fishermen in Indonesia: a Dying
Tradition?)
Co-production: Lieurac production/RFO/IRD
Termites kamikazes (Kamikaze Termites)
Television series “Squatters”
Co-production: Mona Lisa/France 2/IRD/CNRS
Some 50 public screenings were organised at 10 different events.
27 films were selected for entry in 20 festivals.
12 awards were given to five IRD co-productions:
The War of the Flies, Termites Attack, Au contact de la
forêt et de la savane (Where Forest Meets Savannah) and
On the Trail of the Shellfish Eaters.