Research for the South
Climate research, equatorial Andes
••• Priority
Annual report • 2006
The IRD’s research addresses the world’s main development challenges, focusing on six major
themes: natural hazards and climate, ecosystems, access to water, food security, health, and
globalisation. In 2006 it once again achieved important results, many of which were published
in international journals. The selection of results presented here covers all the Institute’s fields of
investigation and reflects research for development conducted in multidisciplinary and international partnership. The research mobilised 115 million euros in 2006, including €95 million for
staff.
programmes
••• Science
guided by ethical principles and quality management
••• Evaluation,
publications and teaching
Desertification in Tunisia
11
Natural hazards
and climate
Understanding to adapt to climate change
63
researchers
10,5 M€
Global warming is now an undeniable fact. It is largely the result of human activity, and
particularly of the increasing quantities of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere. It is having major repercussions on populations in the South, who are particularly vulnerable and dependent on their environments. It is becoming urgent not only
to reduce greenhouse gas emissions but also to apply strategies enabling populations
to adapt and cope with climate change.
By enhancing knowledge, research plays a front line role in risk management and in
making populations less vulnerable. IRD research in this field is based on the United
Nations recommendations on climate change. Its aim is to observe and analyse ever
more closely the climate changes of today and past eras and to study their impact
on the planet. Particular emphasis is laid on the future of water resources, animal and
plant species, tropical ecosystems (forests, coral reefs, lakes and lagoons, deserts etc.)
and the health of populations.
Prevention and management of natural and environmental risks
77
scientific publications
Volcanic hazards
Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, tsunamis and floods: such are the natural
hazards facing the people and environments of Southern countries. These are disasters that recur, sometimes seemingly at random, and are expected to become more
intense in future. Then there are the risks incurred by human activity, such as atmospheric and environmental pollution. To reduce the impact of human activities, the IRD is
conducting research into the processes that underlie such hazards and the events that
trigger them. Our researchers are involved in setting up and running observation and
early warning networks and in educating the populations concerned. IRD research
concentrates on severe seismic events, the eruptive dynamics of volcanoes close to
large towns, the potential impact of climate change and the mechanisms that cause
desertification.
With a chain of forty major volcanoes running through it, Ecuador is a unique
country for volcanology. The IRD has been running an ambitious programme there
for more than ten years now, in close collaboration with the Instituto Geofísico,
Escuela Politécnica Nacional (IG-EPN) in Quito. This exemplary partnership
revealed its full potential in the summer of 2006, when Tungurahua, one of the
country’s most active and dangerous volcanoes, erupted violently. The
volcanologists detected that an eruption was imminent and the local population
was quickly evacuated.
proves particularly high. Modelling the dynamics of these past eruptions enabled the
scientists to identify the probable paths of future nuées ardentes and so establish a map
of high-risk areas, which the two institutes published.
Annual report • 2006
Tu n g u r a h u a : t o p r o t e c t t h e p e o p l e
Armed with the eruptive history and the risk map, the scientists enabled the community
to avoid the worst in the summer of 2006. On 14 July, a 13-kilometer column of gas and
ash rose above Tungurahua. The alarm was raised and 1,500 people were evacuated
from high-risk areas shortly before the column fell back onto the mountainside. On 16
August a second alarm was raised owing to exceptionally strong seismic signals. Within
a few hours 3,000 people had left the area; the only casualties were six people who had
remained in the high-risk area. The ash flows and deposits of volcanic debris, ten metres
deep in some places, devastated the area up to 10 km from the crater, destroying
vegetation, crops and some homes. The ash and deposits will be analysed so that the
scientists can model the volcano’s dynamics more accurately.
••• Contact: lepennec@ird.fr
••• Publication: Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research
A partner’s viewpoint
Pablo Samaniego, director of the IG-EPN/IRD New Partner Team, Quito
Tungurahua volcano, Ecuador
In 1999, Tungurahua awoke from a slumber that had lasted for more than eighty years.
Since then, it has been through a succession of calm periods and phases of large or small
eruptions. In these disquieting circumstances, the IRD’s Magmas and Volcanoes
Laboratory team focused their researches more closely on the eruptive mechanisms and
on volcanic risk management, examining ways to improve preventive measures and
protect the local population. The IRD and IG-EPN pooled their efforts with NGOs to
develop information and early warning systems and draw up evacuation plans.
Meanwhile the Instituto Geofísico set up an observatory to monitor the activity of the
volcano in real time (seismic activity, deformation, emissions of gas and solid matter, etc.).
The researchers also set about reconstituting the eruptive history of Tungurahua over the
past 3,000 years by analysing the geographical distribution and geochemical nature of
the eruptive deposits it has spewed out in the past, using carbon 14 to date the deposits.
They identified several cycles of activity, each lasting a few hundred years with an average
of one eruption per century during these periods. The frequency of violent eruptions
The IG-EPN is responsible for volcano surveillance and risk assessment in Ecuador. It is constantly improving its maps of existing hazards
and is eager to adopt any new method, especially methods for quantifying volcanic phenomena. The latest techniques derive from
advances in research and modelling, especially
of pyroclastic flows. Our cooperation with the
IRD, which began in 1995, is essential and will
continue to drive progress in knowledge of
Ecuadorian volcanism. The new team, set up in 2004, shares this ambitious objective, combining basic knowledge with hazard monitoring on several volcanoes, including
Tungurahua. With Tungurahua, the collaborative research has enabled us to improve our
knowledge of the volcano’s explosive activity over the past 3,000 years, especially thanks
to painstaking field work and numerous radiocarbon datings. This research was essential
for understanding and predicting the events of 14 July and 16 August 2006.
13
The African monsoon in the spotlight
Since 2000, French researchers have launched a vast international
multidisciplinary programme to improve understanding of the African monsoon
and its variations. In 2006, exceptional resources were mobilised for large-scale
field surveys. The African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analyses programme is
funded by five great French organizations, the European Union, the NERC (United
Kingdom) and NASA and supported by the major international organisations
concerned with the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP).
2006 was a key year for the programme. The monsoon was observed and recorded
intensively for several months running. Powerful instruments were deployed to analyse the
ocean, atmosphere and land surface on a large scale. Six research planes recorded data
that was used to assess atmospheric chemistry and dynamics during and after the
passage of the squall lines. For the first time in the world, four types of balloons were used
simultaneously to add further atmospheric measurements. Sounding balloons provided
vertical profiles of temperature, moisture, wind and pressure. Balloons sent in the lower
layers drifted from the Gulf of Mexico to the boundaries of Sahara. Balloons sent in the
upper troposphere (15,000 m) were deployed in the tropical eastern jet stream from Lake
Chad to the Caribbean. Stratospheric balloons were also used. Three oceanographic
vessels were deployed in the Gulf of Guinea to explore atmospheric fluxes and measure
water salinity and temperature and ocean currents. Land-based instrument platforms
recorded rainfall, hydrological parameters, aerosols and gas emissions.
These observations will be continued for the next ten years. All their data and the resulting
high-quality models and forecasts will provide the foundations for the FSP Ripiecsa project,
launched at the end of 2006 to examine the impact of climate change on West African
societies.
The monsoon
arrives
The West African monsoons have been seriously disrupted for nearly forty years now,
causing droughts on an unprecedented scale and of unprecedented duration in the whole
area and particularly in the Sahel. Are these changes a result of regional factors like
deforestation and other human activities or do they prefigure major changes in the global
climate system? Launched in 2000, the AMMA programme – African Monsoon
Multidisciplinary Analyses – is intended to provide essential new knowledge on the
dynamics of the monsoon, improve weather forecasting models, better grasp future
climate trends and determine the impact of the monsoon’s variability on water resources,
farm productivity and human health.
The key to the monsoon lies in the complex interactions between earth, atmosphere and
ocean. These not only govern the dynamics and variability of the African monsoon but also
play a critical role in the earth’s climate as a whole. The AMMA programme is therefore
centred on in-depth measurement surveys of these major systems, combined with
modelling studies. Oceanographers, hydrologists, atmospheric experts, meteorologists
and climatologists from five French research institutes (CNES, CNRS, Ifremer, IRD and
Météo France) will be working until 2010 alongside 40 other European institutions to study
the variability of the monsoon from day to day, season to season and year to year. There
are AMMA committees in Africa, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Opération terrain en Nouvelle Calédonie
••• Contact: thierry.lebel@ird.fr
••• Publication: Bulletin of the American meteorological society
An African network, partner in the AMMA programme
To create a solid African competency hub in matters of climate change
and its impact in West Africa, the AMMA programme is working with
AMMA-NET, a network of over 200 African scientists. In coordination
with the IRD, the network fosters intra - African collaboration as well as
North-South exchanges. The universities are extensively involved, as are
the meteorological offices and hydrology authorities of fourteen West
African countries, and five major regional centres - Centre de recherche
médicale et sanitaire (Cermes, Niger), Centre africain des applications de
la météorologie pour le développement (Acmad, Niger), Centre agroLaunching hydro-météorologique (Agryhmet, Niger), Agence pour la sécurité de la
stratosphere navigation aérienne en Afrique et à Madagascar (Asecna) and the Institut
balloons
international d’Ingénierie de l’Eau et de l’Environnement (EIER, Burkina
Faso). The aim is to promote African research focusing on practical application and associated
training schemes. IRD grants for doctoral research and in-service training are playing a decisive role in the research training programmes that have begun.
Annual report • 2006
Sustainable
management of Souther n ecosystems
144
researchers
21,15
183
publications
Quinoa farming in Bolivia
M€
The many ecosystems of the intertropical belt – deserts, rainforests, major rivers, oceans,
savannah, mountains – are home to most of the world’s biodiversity. Over-exploitation
of their resources (intensive fishing, for example), deforestation for the timber trade or for
farming, cultivation of highly vulnerable marginal land, ill-controlled urbanisation and climate change are all factors that threaten this biodiversity. It is essential to think about
the importance and heritage value of biodiversity so as to manage it sustainably.
IRD researchers, along with their partners from North and South, are inventorying this
biodiversity. They study the organisation and complex functioning of tropical ecosystems – terrestrial, continental, aquatic and marine.
To enable Southern researchers to rapidly appropriate the methods developed for
data acquisition and sustainable environmental management, the IRD offers them
useful technologies ranging from modelling tools and remote sensing tools to simple
oceanography equipment, marine acoustics technology and physical-chemical analysis laboratories adapted to local conditions. Research findings are of immediate relevance to local practices and policies addressing the challenge of sustainable
development.
Both in observation and experimentation, the IRD is concerned with the physicalchemical properties of nanoparticles in the present and past environment (soils and
laterites, forest fires, lagoons etc.)
15
The Amazonian forest unveiled
An international group of botanists and ecologists, including a team from the
Botany and bioinformatics of plant architecture unit, (AMAP), has been studying
the structure of the Amazon forest, which is under severe threat from
deforestation and climate change. Their work, published in Nature, shows that in
spatial terms the forest is organised along two main axes.
exceptional set of data provided the basis for an analysis of the main floristic and
structural characteristics of the forest at the pan-Amazon scale.
The results show that the forest is structured along two main axes, running southwest to
northeast and northwest to southeast. These axes seem to correspond to variations in
current and past environmental conditions. The first axis follows the main gradient of soil
fertility while the other seems to be linked to variations in the duration of the dry season.
This structuring matches that obtained for local species diversity. In the northeast
(Guyana/Surinam/French Guiana), where diversity is relatively low, the predominance of
species with hard, dense wood and large seeds that do not scatter far indicates a forest
that has not been greatly disturbed (slow regeneration). In the western Amazon, natural
disturbance is more intense and the predominant tree species have smaller seeds that
scatter more widely and need ideal conditions to germinate. Here local species diversity
is higher. These results confirm, on a large scale, the link between regeneration dynamics
and species diversity which AMAP researchers have already shown at the local level.
••• Contacts: daniel.sabatier@ird.fr and jean-francois.molino@ird.fr
••• Publication: Nature
The Amazon forest is the largest area of tropical rainforest in the world and a vast reserve
of biodiversity that is in daily increasing danger. This ocean of green, which looks so
uniform at first glance, is in fact very diverse in structure and floristic composition. At a
time when the forest is being ever more rapidly fragmented, felled and converted to
farmland, it is essential to analyse this variability in order to understand it in terms of
resource availability and renewal and the stability and resilience of the ecosystem under
the impact of local and global changes.
Until now, knowledge of the forest remained fragmented because the data were gathered
from small, one-hectare areas very irregularly scattered around Amazonia. On the initiative
of a Dutch botanist from the University of Utrecht, most of the teams conducting these
inventories have joined forces in the Amazon Tree Diversity Network to look at this “forest
continent” as a whole. The network has put forward a model of variation in local tree
species diversity for the whole of the pan-Amazon (Amazonia and the Guyana Shield).
More recently, the network has brought together the data from major national forest
inventories, which are less precise botanically but cover much wider areas. This
Fossil insects in Amazonian amber
With others in an international team of palaeontologists and geologists, IRD scientists have
been working for years to understand the evolution of Amazonian biodiversity over the past
20 million years of successive geological transformations. They have looked at palaeoenvironmental and bio-stratigraphic evidence (fossil plants and vertebrates), and in northern
Peru they have found several palaeontological deposits in geological environments very
different from today’s. The team unexpectedly discovered pieces of amber containing
fossil insects and acarids dating from the mid-Miocene. The fossilised resin had trapped
several flies, wasps, various other insects and in one case a mite stuck on a thread of
spider’s silk. This is the first discovery of its kind in the western Amazon. It proves that the
region’s wide terrestrial biodiversity existed from an early epoch. We now know that 12 to
15 million years ago, this region was a delta opening onto an inland sea bordered by dense
forest, in a climate that even then was hot and humid.
•••••• Contact: patrice.baby@ird.fr
The IRD is closely involved in the Desert Margins Programme, whose aim is to halt
land degradation in sub-Saharan Africa and open the way to sustainable farming
there. The programme is supported by the United National Environment
Programme and the World Environment Fund.
natural tricalcium phosphate, which is available in the region, could further improve the
performance of the compost while beneficially increasing phosphate levels in the soil.
Outreach sessions have been held in villages to help farmers improve their composting
methods and fertiliser use.
Annual report • 2006
To h a l t l a n d d e g r a d a t i o n i n s u b - S a h a r a n A f r i c a
To improve ecological management of degraded soils, the researchers have been
studying the possibility of better integrating trees with crops. With the farmers they have
been monitoring a zai agro-forestry system developed from bare soil, and they have
studied the use of forest produce such as medicinal plants and wild foods.
The project has also shown by adding soil that has been worked over by termites one
can significantly enhance symbiosis between ligneous species and fungi, increasing the
plants’ resistance and growth rates. This effect has also been successfully tested in
market garden crops (IRD patent applied for).
Today, innovative practices such as erosion control structures in the fields combined with
new cropping practices have succeeded in increasing tree and herbaceous cover in
some parts of the Sahel, shedding a more optimistic light on the usually depressing
picture of constant deterioration in the Sahel’s dryland ecosystems.
Preparing a field with zaï pits, Burkina Faso
More than 120 million people in the countries of the sub-Saharan African desert fringe
depend on crop farming, livestock and natural resources for their survival. But low rainfall,
recurrent droughts and the spread of extensive farming have resulted in widespread
destruction of plant cover and consequent soil erosion. The Desert Margins Programme
started up in 2003. Its purpose is to help these populations restore degraded land
through active research conducted in partnership, and to build up their competencies in
managing fragile ecosystems.
IRD researchers and their partners in the national institutes of Senegal and Burkina Faso
have been studying the methods that Sahelian farmers use to regenerate degraded soils.
A particular example is the zai system, in which the crop is sown in shallow pits dug out
to concentrate water and nutrients. The researchers have made a comparative typology
of farms according to soil type, the availability of organic matter and the soil rehabilitation
methods used.
Examining ways to add organic matter to the soil and so increase farm output in a
sustainable manner, they have been testing local composting methods and the factors
that determine the agronomic quality of the finished compost. They have assessed the
fertilising properties of different types of compost in greenhouse trials with common crop
species – maize, sorghum, millet and cowpea. Their findings confirm that it is important
to control moisture levels in the materials during the composting process, and that adding
••• Contact: michel.lepage@ird.bf
••• Publication: Science of the Total Environnement et Geoderma
A partner’s viewpoint
Souleymane Ouédraogo, national coordinator of the Desert Margins Programme, Institut
de l’environnement et de recherches agricoles (Inera), Burkina Faso
The IRD is on the steering committee in Burkina, and has been responsible for
characterising sites and studying desertification control methods in the North and
Sahel regions of the country. The research has mainly focused on improving the zai
technique so as to increase yields and upgrade marginal lands, and on identifying the
processes involved in the decline of biodiversity.
The IRD has been supervising several Burkinabe students and has brought us its expertise
in training courses designed to foster technology transfer. Through the collaboration with
Inera and other African partners, the IRD’s work has helped us develop greater consistency
in research work and has introduced new desertification control technologies. The work
has resulted in a better understanding of the interactions between climate, vegetation and
human activities.
17
Wa t e r r e s o u r c e s
and access to water
Integrated management of water resources
133
Providing clean drinking water in Southern countries is one of the great challenges of
the 21st century. Even today there are a billion people in the world with no access to
drinking water and one and a half billion with no sanitation. This situation could worsen
in the near future as the world population’s water requirements continue to increase.
Locating water resources, making them accessible to the people who need them
while making sure they are managed sustainably – these are crucial keys to development. Integrated resource management based on sound knowledge of the water
cycle makes it possible to meet the vital need for access to water at every scale from
village to region to river catchment. This is the focus of IRD research in this field.
researchers
Sustainable development of coastal environments
23 M€
137
scientific publications
Burkina Faso
Coral reefs, coastal systems such as estuaries, lagoons and mangrove swamps, freshwater systems: to protect aquatic ecosystems and use them sustainably it is essential
to understand how they function and how they are affected by human activity. IRD
research also addresses the need to reduce the impact on these ecosystems and their
biological resources of the increasingly serious degradation caused by water extraction, pollution etc. Another research area is fish biology and population dynamics – an
essential basis for developing balanced, integrated aquaculture.
To protect the biodiversity of the world’s coral reefs, the international
organisations have adopted planet-wide conservation strategies including
a system of Marine Protected Areas. An international team that includes
IRD researchers has shown that at the global level this system is not working, and
has sounded the alarm for a more suitable world network of marine reserves
to be set up.
against poachers. Management efficiency varies from country to country but is particularly
weak in those areas where coral reef biodiversity is high, as it is in the Caribbean and
Indo-Pacific. Moreover, 85% of the coral reefs in these marine reserves are exposed to
local hazards such as pollution, coastal development or over-fishing. And 40% of MPAs
are no bigger than one or two square kilometres, so they cannot provide adequate
protection for the many fish species that pass through them and are endangered in other
parts of their range.
Annual report • 2006
Protecting our coral reefs: towards an effective world network
Only 2% of the world’s coral reefs are in Marine Protected Areas where the legislation is
properly enforced. The research team therefore suggests that a more effective world
network of marine protected areas be established, with reserves of 10 km2 each, some
fifteen kilometres apart. This would mean creating 2,500 new MPAs. This kind of network
would allow more effective protection for nearly 26,000km2 or 5% of the world’s coral
reefs – still far short of the official target.
••• Contact: andrefou@noumea.ird.nc
••• Publication: Science
Ocean floors off Madagascar
One of the goals announced at the world sustainable development summit in 2002 was
to have 20 to 30% of the world’s coral reefs protected by 2012. The establishment of
Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) was supposed to contribute to that goal by reducing the
damage done to the reefs by human activities such as over-fishing and pollution.
Although the effectiveness of these protected areas has often been studied locally, it had
not previously been quantified on a global scale. The IRD centre in New Caledonia, the
University of Auckland in New Zealand and several international institutions conducted
the first global assessment. They made a database including the area covered by coral
reef in each country, how much of that area is designated as MPAs, and how effective
the protection is. The Biocomplexity of coral ecosystems of the Indo-Pacific unit in
Nouméa was responsible for mapping the world’s coral reefs from satellite images.
All in all, 980 MPAs covering 98,650 km2 were identified and recorded – 18.7% of the
world’s total coral reef area. However, the study showed that although MPAs are
designated, it is rare for their management rules to be properly implemented. Worldwide,
less than 0.1% of the reefs where fishing is theoretically prohibited are actually protected
Towards sustainable management of French Polynesia’s
maxima clam
Tridacna maxima, the maxima clam or small giant
clam, is close to extinction in many parts of the
Pacific but is still remarkably abundant on some
islands of French Polynesia. However, these clams
are highly prized on the Tahitian market and are in
danger of over-fishing. It is difficult to predict how
the clams, which congregate in shallow parts
of the lagoons, will react to over-fishing. To identify
measures that will provide for sustainable management, the French Polynesia fisheries
department and the IRD teams in Tahiti and Nouméa made a survey of clam stocks,
population dynamics and clam catches on several islands. For these isolated lagoons, the
scientists recommend joint management by all stakeholders as the only realistic strategy
for making sure that recommendations are followed. The idea is to foster a more uniform
spatial distribution of fishing, set up a network of breeding refuges, establish an initial quota
and monitor the state of the ecosystem using a set of indicators. Management actions
would change according to the indicator measurements.
19
Wa t e r s u p p l i e s t o M e x i c o C i t y
Faced with a severe water supply problem, the Mexico City metro area must
exploit new resources, further away from the city each time. Five years ago, IRD
researchers and their Mexican partners launched a programme of surveys in the
Valle de Bravo basin to study its water regime and water quality.
Large amounts of data on hydrology, rainfall, climate and water quality have been
collected in the Loma sub-catchment, which is representative of the Valle de Bravo’s
environment and land use. Analysis of the data and modelling of the processes involved
show that the components of the water cycle vary widely in time and space. However,
runoff is very low in this basin, which limits the risks of erosion, surface water pollution
and silting of the Valle de Bravo reservoir. Drainage of deep groundwater and aquifer
recharge are the main water transfer processes at work. Although there are high
concentrations of fertiliser, nitrates especially, in groundwater beneath farmers’ fields,
pollution levels in the surface waters remain within acceptable limits.
These results confirm that groundwater is the main water resource in this region and that
farming has not yet had a marked impact on its quality. The challenge now is to preserve
the quality of the water and solve the problem of sharing the basin’s water equitably
between local communities and Mexico City’s inhabitants.
••• Contact: michel.esteves@hmg.inpg.fr
••• Publication: Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis
Water balance, Loma basin
Mexico.
Mercury contamination in the Amazon basin
Supplying water to Mexico City in a sustainable manner presents three major challenges.
In the first place, the city’s population stands at 20 million today and is increasing by 3.5%
a year, so water demand will continue to increase. Secondly, the city has already
exhausted its own water resources. The groundwater has been over-exploited and is not
adequately renewed because urbanisation has reduced the areas where precipitation can
infiltrate and recharge the valley’s aquifers. The over-exploitation of groundwater causes
subsidence and also ruptures pipes, causing an estimated 35% of the city’s water to leak
from the mains network. Lastly, policy makers should consider whether the current
approach of extracting more and more water from further and further away is sustainable
in the long run.
The Valle Bravo basin, some hundred kilometres from Mexico City, currently supplies
nearly 10% of Mexico City’s water. Scientists from the Instituto Mexicano de Technología
del Agua, the Colegio de Postgraduados and the IRD’s Environment and hydrology
transfers research laboratory in Grenoble are running a programme called AMHEX
(AManalco Hydrology Experiment) to study the impact of farming and deforestation of the
Valle de Bravo hillsides on the valley’s water regime and water quality.
Opération terrain en Nouvelle Calédonie
Mercury contamination of streams and rivers is a worrying issue in the Amazon basin. Gold
mining and deforestation both add considerably to the problem by facilitating erosion of
mercury-rich alluvial sediments and soils. IRD researchers have shown that the Rio Beni in
Bolivia is contaminated as far as 200 km downstream of the tributaries where alluvial gold
is exploited. The data show high concentrations of mercury in the carnivorous fish and in
indigenous populations who eat them regularly. In utero contamination of foetuses has also
been revealed – a very worrying phenomenon in view of the severe damage mercury can
do to the nervous system. However, there are other factors that can interfere with a child’s
neuro-motor development, such as malnutrition, micronutrient deficiency, some parasite
diseases and the mother’s health. To clarify the situation, an in-depth study of these communities’ exposure was conducted. It showed that communities whose way of life is closely dependent on river resources are at greater risk than communities who use a wider range
of resources. This research was presented at an international symposium on Metals,
Environment and Health held in La Paz, Bolivia, and organised by Marc Roulet.
•••••• Contact: maurice@lmtg.obs-mip.fr
137
Annual report • 2006
Fo o d s e c u r i t y
in the South
Researchers
Farming system productivity
20 M€
182
scientific publications
In many parts of the South, low farm yields combined with rapid population growth has
led farmers to cultivate new land that is poorly suited to agriculture. The result has been
deforestation and land degradation. The challenge now is to continue to increase food
production so as to meet future needs, but without damaging or endangering the environment. The goal of the IRD teams’ most basic research is to help improve yields from
farmland while maintaining soil fertility, minimising erosion and reducing inputs. They are
working to improve understanding of plant biology and physiology and identify the genetic mechanisms responsible for specific varietal characteristics. The results will speed up
the process of breeding varieties adapted to particular soil and climate conditions. More
efficient pest control is also essential for improving crop yields, and this requires a more
thorough knowledge of crop pest biology.
Food policy
Eliminating hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition while ensuring sustainable management of natural resources is a major development challenge. With today’s rapid
scientific and technological progress, it is now essential for government policies to take
into account the needs of farmers, consumers and the environment together. The IRD’s
research in this field focuses on identifying appropriate policies, based on incentive
measures that local policy makers can introduce to improve the efficiency of food systems and encourage farmers to increase their output while managing their natural
resources in a sustainable manner.
Otavalo market, Ecuador
21
Improving rice growing in Africa
Rice, the first cereal humans ever cultivated, is a vital resource for many Southern
countries. In Africa, rice yellow mottle virus is a major problem, causing
considerable damage and heavy losses at harvest. Prophylactic measures have
been employed to limit the spread of the disease, but the best hope is to breed
new varieties using natural resistance genes found in the gene pool.
Meanwhile a team of virologists from the Plant resistance against pests and diseases unit
has identified strains of the rice yellow mottle virus that can bypass this resistance gene.
This property is due to mutations in one of the proteins of the virus. The two approaches
can now be used together to determine the molecular mechanisms involved in the
interaction between the rice protein and the virus protein. This knowledge will enable
scientists to imagine more effectively how best to use the resistance gene in the long run.
The findings should be of practical use in improving rice production in countries affected
by the rice yellow mottle virus. The IRD has already succeeded in transferring the
resistance gene to some agronomically important varieties by conventional crossbreeding, and the lines obtained have been given to national research institutions (in Côte
d’Ivoire, Senegal, Madagascar and Guinea) and to international centres like the Africa
Rice Center. It is planned to run experiments with these institutions to verify the
effectiveness of the resistance gene in field conditions and envisage its use on a larger
scale in rice breeding programmes, using marker-assisted breeding.
••• Contacts: laurence.albar@ird.fr et alain.ghesquiere@ird.fr
Traditional
rice variety,
Africa
••• Publication: The Plant Journal
Journal General of Virology
A partner’s viewpoint
Marie-Noëlle Ndjiondjop, head of the Molecular Markers Laboratory, West Africa Rice
Development Association (WARDA/ADRAO), Cotonou, Benin
There are a few rare traditional rice varieties that are resistant to rice yellow mottle virus
(RYMV) and show no damage once infected. However, these varieties do not have the
agronomic qualities required for intensive irrigated rice growing and flooded cultivation,
where the disease does most damage. An IRD team (CNRS/IRD/Perpignan University
joint unit) has been working for several years to identify the genes responsible for the
resistance.
The scientists have identified a major gene, called Rymv1, in which minor mutations
confer total resistance against most strains of the virus. In a healthy plant, this gene is
involved in protein translation. In an infected plant, the virus probably interacts with the
gene’s product and uses it to multiply. The scientists have found that small mutations in
this gene are responsible for the resistance. They probably do not alter the protein’s
performance of its main functions, but no doubt prevent it from interacting with the virus,
which cannot then progress to the next stage of the infection cycle.
Opération terrain en Nouvelle Calédonie
WARDA has been collaborating with the IRD for over ten years now to identify genes that confer natural resistance against the rice yellow mottle virus. The aim is to use them to improve rice
varieties using marker-assisted breeding. The centre is now developing this technique with the
national agricultural research institutes in Burkina Faso, Gambia, Guinea and Mali, to transfer the
Rymv1 gene and speed up the process of developing new rice varieties with resistance to the
virus. The resistant lines will also be made available to rice breeding networks such as the West
and Central Africa Rice Network, which will evaluate them more thoroughly with a view to
including them in national breeding programmes. As well as providing training in molecular
techniques to students and to staff in charge of plant breeding, WARDA is helping to set up in
each of these four countries a molecular markers laboratory that will enable qualified national staff
to transfer RYMV resistance genes, or other valuable genes, into elite rice varieties.
In the Sahel countries, it is a constant challenge to identify the most vulnerable
populations so as to prevent food crises and malnutrition. Research by the IRD in
Burkina Faso may help to address the challenge. Nutritionists and
epidemiologists have shown that analysing dietary diversity in the period before
the “hungry gap” (the annual grain shortage) is a simple and effective way of
assessing nutritional vulnerability.
In Burkina Faso, in partnership with the Institute for
Research in Science and
Health and the University
of Ouagadougou, the
Nutrition,
food
and
societies unit conducted
a programme on the
nutritional vulnerability of
women, and particularly
on the diversity of their
diets. Maternal malnutrition deserves special
attention because it
Nutrition survey, Burkina Faso
affects the growth and
development of the child, starting an inter-generational cycle of malnutrition that is hard
to break.
The researchers have shown that the dietary diversity score is a good indicator of the
quality of the diet and the nutritional status of adults, particularly mothers of young children, in impoverished rural areas. Diversity can be measured by asking individuals how
many different food groups they consume in 24 hours. Recently the work has shown,
unexpectedly, that diets become more varied towards the end of the May-to-September
“hungry gap” when cereals stocks run out. The increase can partly be explained by the
arrival of the rains and the resulting flush of pasture and green growth including such edibles as groundnuts, Bambara groundnuts, vegetables and wild fruit. The researchers
therefore recommend studying the degree of variation in the diet in March and April, just
before the hungry gap usually begins. In this period the grain shortage may be starting,
and the rains have not yet begun. This is the moment when groups of women at greatest risk of food shortage and malnutrition can be identified by means of a simple questionnaire.
Armed with these initial findings, the
researchers joined forces with the
Burkina Faso Nutrition Department and
Directorate General of Agricultural
Forecasting and Statistics. Together
they have demonstrated the usefulness
of applying this diagnostic tool to identify nutritional vulnerability in the population as a whole.
Annual report • 2006
D i a g n o s i n g n u t r i t i o n a l v u l n e r a b i l i t y i n B u r k i n a Fa s o
These results have aroused the interest
of international institutions such as the
International Food Policy Research
Institute, the WHO and the FAO. The
Nutrition research, Burkina Faso
famine in Niger in 2005 revealed the
weaknesses of existing early warning systems, which are mainly based on price
monitoring and farm output volumes. The research is now continuing in nine Sahel
countries as part of NUSAPPS (Nutrition, Sécurité alimentaire et Politiques publiques au
Sahel), a programme jointly run by the IRD, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the
Comité permanent inter-Etats de lutte contre la sécheresse dans le Sahel (CILSS).
••• Contact: yves.martin-prevel@ird.bf
••• Publication: The Journal of Nutrition
A partner’s viewpoint
Dramane Coulibaly et Amadou Mactar Konaté, Permanent Secretary of the Comité
permanent inter-Etats de lutte contre la sécheresse dans le Sahel (CILSS), Ouagadougou
In 2005, a year when the food situation was difficult in the Sahel, the IRD nutritionists shed
new light on the causes of malnutrition and the relevance of the indicators currently used.
As part of the programme on “Nutrition, food security and public policy in the Sahel” set
up by CILSS with the support of the French foreign affairs ministry, they took part in
missions to assess the nutritional situation in nine countries of the Sahel. In future, dietary
diversity surveys to assess nutritional vulnerability in rural populations and the search for
nutritional vulnerability indicators applicable to urban areas will make it possible to
strengthen food crisis prevention and information systems. A process of collaboration for
nutritional monitoring in West Africa is taking shape.
23
Pu b l i c h e a l t h a n d
health policy
114
researchers
19 M€
195
publications
Access to health care is a priority in the social science of health and must systematically accompany any research undertaken in this field.
Combating the main diseases linked to poverty: AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis
AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis are commonest in the poorest countries – sub-Saharan
Africa especially. They undermine a country’s economic activity and hamper development. To combat these scourges, apart from improving access to existing treatments,
which is vital, it is also essential to intensify research and the development of new
diagnostic methods and treatments, and to improve the quality of research in Southern
countries.
Environment and emerging diseases
Any sudden change in the natural environment such as deforestation, water
engineering works or urbanisation, can facilitate the emergence of disease. Taking
account of such environmental impacts on health is a recent advance in developing
countries. These countries are facing profound changes, both environmental and
social, and they have become incubators for new diseases such as SARS and bird flu
that are making an impact worldwide. Meanwhile the developing countries are no longer spared the diseases of civilisation. Health research requires an ecosystemic
approach that will produce methods applicable to local situations and solutions that
are viable over the long term.
Mother and infant health
Women are especially vulnerable with respect to health because of the risks connected with pregnancy and childbirth. And through their childcare role, they also ensure
the health of future generations. Reproductive health, the risk of mother-to-infant transmission of the AIDS virus, malaria in pregnant women and factors that can affect the
health of mother and infant are therefore important aspects of the IRD’s health
research. Similarly, the roles and work society allocates to women (a long-neglected
factor, along with gender inequalities and gender issues in general), should be essential strands of research, especially in terms of their impact on health.
Health centre, Senegal
By showing that the chimpanzee is the natural reservoir of the virus that has
caused the AIDS pandemic, and by discovering that the gorilla also carries a virus
closely related to HIV-1, IRD scientists have pinned down the origin of the AIDS
virus and confirmed that it has been transmitted across species, from apes to
humans. These results have been published in Science and Nature.
gathered over a thousand samples of chimpanzee and gorilla faeces. For the first time they
discovered that the virus is in fact widespread in wild chimpanzees. To be precise, only the
sub-species Pan troglodytes troglodytes, which lives in the Congo basin, is naturally infected,
by two of the three known groups of the virus (groups M and N). Later, to the surprise of all,
the researchers found a virus similar to the third HIV-1 group (group O) in gorillas.
Annual report • 2006
Tr a c k i n g t h e s o u r c e o f t h e
AIDS virus
These findings confirm that there has been transmission from apes to humans. The
contamination is thought to have occurred through hunting accidents or consumption of ape
meat, probably in the 1940s. Many factors then played some part in its propagation. The
upheavals connected with migration and massive urbanisation, mass medicine practices
(injection with unsterilised needles) are all factors that contributed to the initial spread of
today’s epidemic.
The team has also shown that a plethora of simian retroviruses exists in Central Africa, where
contacts between men and apes are more frequent than they have ever been, mainly owing
to massive deforestation and the resulting population movements. These viruses having been
isolated, screening tests have been developed and are currently being used in Cameroon on
a surveillance basis, to forestall the risk of a new pandemic emerging.
This research has received support from the Agence nationale de recherches sur le sida
(ANRS) and the NIH.
••• Contacts: eric.delaporte@ird.fr and martine.peeters@ird.fr
••• Publication: Science and Nature
Dengue haemorrhagic fever: first steps towards
a treatment
Gorillas carry a virus related to HIV-1
Today, twenty years after the first cases of AIDS were identified in humans, some 40 million
people are infected with the virus. Where, when and how or why did the virus develop? To
try to answer this question, the HIV/AIDS and associated diseases unit (a joint unit with
Montpellier I University) has been running an international project in partnership with the army
research centre in Yaoundé, the Cameroon Ministries of health and research and the
University of Alabama in the United States.
Right back in 1989, IRD researchers in Gabon had found a pet chimpanzee carrying a virus
similar to HIV-1, suggesting that this species might be the virus’s natural reservoir. However,
as few contaminated apes were found after that, some doubt remained on the question. To
study this protected species without disturbing it, the team developed an original and noninvasive method of diagnosis based on analysing faeces. Over a four-year period researchers
The dengue fever virus affects some 60 to 100 million people around the world. The most
severe form of the disease, which is spreading fast in tropical countries, causes plasma to
leak from the blood vessels and can lead to shock and sometimes fatal haemorrhaging. So
far there is no specific treatment or vaccine for the disease and the only preventive
measure is vector control. In Montpellier, researchers in the Emerging virus diseases unit in
collaboration with the University of Mahidol in Thailand, ImmunoClin Ltd, the CNRS (Centre
national de la recherche scientifique) and Inserm (Institut national de la santé et de la
recherche médicale), have identified the mechanism that causes the leaking blood vessels
and haemorrhaging. They found that the viral infection causes enzymes to be produced
which destroy the cement that binds together the cells of the blood vessel walls. The action
of these enzymes can be specifically blocked with molecules that can be used in humans.
These original results open the way, for the first time, towards a treatment for dengue fever.
••• Contact: francisco.veas@ird.fr
••• Publication: EMBO reports
25
Genetic susceptibility to sleeping sickness
African human trypanosomiasis, a parasite disease transmitted by a tsetse fly’s
bite, is a widespread problem in sub-Saharan Africa. Although the alarming
upsurge recorded over the past 20 years seems to have been halted, the illness
still threatens millions of people and some countries could still suffer epidemic
outbreaks. IRD researchers have shown that some individuals are particularly
susceptible to the disease, so the way is open to look for genetic risk factors.
A team in the Mother and infant health in tropical environments unit is studying the
influence of mutations in genes coding for four immune system proteins (cytokines) on
the appearance of the disease in humans. Two studies were conducted in two separate
transmission areas of the disease, Sinfra in Côte d’Ivoire (502 people included, of whom
190 were affected) and Bandundu in the Democratic Republic of Congo (353 people
included, of whom 135 were sick). Comparing the frequency of mutations in these genes
in healthy and sick subjects, the researchers found two mutations, affecting the genes of
cytokines IL10 and IL6, that seem to protect a person against trypanosomiasis whereas
two other mutations, affecting the genes of cytokines TNFα and IL1α , make them more
susceptible to the disease. This work was conducted in partnership with the national
trypanosomiasis control programmes of Côte d’Ivoire and the Democratic Republic of
Congo.
To confirm the link between these mutations and individual susceptibility to
trypanosomiasis, collaborative studies are being conducted by two IRD units, CIRDES in
Burkina Faso and Bordeaux II University. The results will enable the scientists to
understand the relations between humans and the trypanosomiasis parasite and, in the
long run, to envisage developing original ways to control the disease, both therapeutically
and prophylactically.
Trypanosomiasis
screening,
Republic of the
Congo
••• Contacts: andre.garcia@ird.fr et d.courtin@gmail.com
••• Publication: Infection, Genetics and Evolution et Trends in Parasitology
Once injected by a tsetse fly (glossina) bite, the trypanosome (the parasite responsible
for the disease) multiplies in the bloodstream and then infects the central nervous system
causing a confused mental state, sensory and motor disorders and serious disturbed
sleep patterns. The disease is most easily cured if it is diagnosed early, as existing
treatments are more effective at the start of the illness, before the parasite breaks through
the blood-brain barrier.
The disease can take either of two forms, depending on the species of trypanosome
concerned. The “acute” form is more virulent and progresses faster than the other,
“chronic” form. However, the reality is more complex. Some people infected by the
species responsible for the chronic form exhibit a severe, fast-developing illness while
others have no symptoms at all. This variability in symptoms cannot be explained by
environmental factors alone and suggests that some individuals are particularly
susceptible to the disease. Individual susceptibility has been shown in animals: mutations
of genes involved in the immune system have an impact on the development of the
disease.
Opération terrain en Nouvelle Calédonie
A New IRD Partner Team (JEAI)
Flobert Njiokou, head of the African human trypanosomiasis JEAI team, Yaoundé,
Cameroon
By what mechanisms do the human trypanosomiasis infection areas in Cameroon manage
to persist, with periodic outbreaks? To answer that question, our new team, created in 2002
and supported by the IRD, is working to identify the animal reservoirs of the disease and
estimate the frequency of contact between tsetse flies and vertebrate hosts. Thanks to
partnership with the IRD unit in Montpellier, we have been able to develop new techniques.
To date, we have shown that both wild and domestic animals harbour trypanosomes that
can infect humans and so constitute a reservoir for the disease. Our expertise in molecular analysis of the tsetse fly’s blood meals has enabled us to show that the insect carries
trypanosomes from humans to animals and vice versa, so ensuring the survival and
resurgence of infection areas.
Our partnership with the IRD is decisive when it comes to setting up and monitoring
projects, help with publication, transferring technology and training students under joint
supervision.
Annual report • 2006
Development and
globalisation
Reducing poverty and inequality
To reduce poverty and inequality: this is a major goal for development policies and one
of the goals the international community has set itself. IRD research addresses the issue
from several angles: the multidimensional aspects of poverty (monetary, human, timerelated, etc.); access to public services (education, health, water, transport, etc.); the way
the labour market operates; and the impacts of public and private development aid.
International migration and development
The globalisation process has accelerated the movement of the factors of production
but has curbed the movement of labour. Population movements across the world’s main
fracture lines have intensified (e.g. Europe/North Africa/sub-Saharan Africa), especially
where the income gap is widest. This has made international migration a major issue for
development. The IRD’s research in this field has several focuses: the determinants and
consequences of migration on societies and environments; the measurement of mobility at the level of town, region and country and its impact in terms of territorial and social
recomposition; the formation of networks and diaspora organisations and the reconstruction of identities that migration gives rise to.
184
researchers
20 M€
Street children in Ecuador
Better governance for sustainable development
This research contributes facts and ideas towards sustainable development – development that will combine economic development in developing countries with environmental protection. It stands at the interface between societies and nature, but also at
the interface between local practices and official and international policy on biodiversity
conservation and environmental management. It takes account of local practices
and how they can contribute to defining the dimensions of a better form of
governance, one that would be at once appropriate, accepted and efficient. The two
main aspects considered are access to and conservation of resources, and urbanisation and access to services.
27
Access to land: a major public policy challenge
There has been renewed interest in the land tenure issue in recent years owing to
persistent poverty and increasing inequality in the rural societies of the South, and the
growing number of conflicts arising from competition for access to land in areas where
there is much movement between town and country. Access to land is now posited as
an essential factor in many poverty reduction policies and the land tenure question has
again become a major issue for public policy as for the international institutions and for
research on sustainable development in Southern countries.
practical implementation and their unforeseen effects. In particular, it has shed fresh light
on the importance of issues within families and between generations in situations where
land tenure policy implementation is blocked or inverted, or gives rise to conflict. This
goes far beyond the usual interpretation in terms of intra- or inter-community tensions.
Côte d’Ivoire is one example here.
In 2006, the researchers played an important part in organising an international
symposium in Montpellier on “At the frontier of land issues: social embeddedness of
rights and public policy”. The research conducted by the unit and its partners has
contributed especially to the European research programme on “Changes in Land
Access, Institutions and Markets in West Africa”. The researchers have also been working
in the mobilising project entitled “Support for rural land tenure policy design”, so providing
material for discussions within the French development agency AFD and the Ministry for
Foreign Affairs on land tenure policy in the countries of the South.
••• Contact: colin@supagro.inra.fr
••• Publication: International symposium “At the frontier of land issues”
Farm landscape in the
Andes
May 2006 - Montpellier (http://www.mpl.ird.fr/colloque_foncier)
Impacts and limitations of microfinance
The Land tenure regulation, public policy and actors’ strategies unit, which involves
researchers from a number of social science disciplines, is addressing the question from
several angles. Under what conditions are public measures conceived and implemented?
What are the roles of social relations and the real estate market in access to land? What
is the relationship between land tenure dynamics and production dynamics?
The researchers’ empirical and theoretical approach focuses especially on the relations
between actors and institutions (institutions in the sense of economic and socio-political
ground rules).
The research is being conducted in South America and Africa, in partnership with national
institutions: the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO) in Mexico, San
Marco National University in Peru, the Institut d’ethno-sociologie at the University of Cody
in Côte d’Ivoire and Ngaoundéré University in Cameroon.
By enabling individuals or families to manager their cash flow better, microfinance makes
them less vulnerable - which is in itself a positive outcome. However, it has made scarcely
any contribution to reducing poverty and inequality. Such are the findings of a research
programme in India conducted by the Population-environment-development unit, which set
out to analyse the impact and limitations of microfinance at the individual and family levels
and also at the level of business sectors and local employment markets. The researchers
found that microfinance has no significant impact on job creation. Moreover it exacerbates
the exclusion of the poorest people, because microfinance services are ill adapted to their
very varied and complex needs. It also involves a growing number of inexperienced
providers and is inadequately coordinated and regulated. These findings, based on a
number of partnerships, North and South, with microfinance networks and organisations,
public and private financial institutions, international institutions and academic partners,
should help towards better-designed microfinance services in future.
This is comparative research. It is helping to explain the distance between what is
expected of policies to recognise tenure rights and provide security of tenure, their
•••••• Contact: isabelle.guerin@ird.fr
Opération terrain en Nouvelle Calédonie
Migration from sub-Saharan Africa to North Africa has increased as never before
over the past 15 years or so. What routes are the migrants following and how are
they settling in North Africa? What social and spatial changes are these new
settlement patterns generating? What effects are today’s increasingly restrictive
migration policies having on migration patterns? Anthropologists, geographers
and sociologists in a project coordinated by a CNRS researcher and a researcher
from the IRD/University of Provence joint Population-Environment-Development
Laboratory have been assessing the situation. And their initial findings are far less
alarming than popular report suggests.
The most striking change in migration
patterns in Africa is not so much an
increase in volume as a wider range of
different flows. Contrary to popular
wisdom, only a minority of African
migrants push on into Europe. Most
settle lastingly in the Arab countries;
migration in Africa is thus mainly
cross-border migration within the
continent. Displacement in the SahelSahara region is closely linked to the
Egyptian migrants
region’s recent history. Independence
in the 1950s and 60s, the droughts of the 1970s, the armed conflicts of the 70s and 80s
and the development gap between the countries north and south of the Sahara have all
encouraged people from sub-Saharan countries to head for regions where there are
opportunities for work.
The Maghreb Sahara has thus seen considerable urban expansion. In the space of thirty
years, 53 new towns have sprung up compared to only 8 in the Sahelian Sahara. In this
landlocked part of the Maghreb, the arrival of newcomers is seen as a way of revitalising
local areas. Algeria, for example, controls the circulation of migrants but integrates them
in the development of its southern towns, where there is a chronic labour shortage.
Secondly, it is not the most destitute who migrate, because the journey is expensive. And
economic reasons are not the only ones for leaving home. Psychological reasons such
as the desire to break free from family obligations are also widespread. Migrants’ profiles
vary widely and the lability of their professional and legal status is a determining feature
of this form of migration. The reality is far from the accepted cliché of the young, illiterate
migrant from a rural area. On the contrary, many migrants have university degrees or
professional qualifications and have already worked in the West African mega-cities
where they grew up.
Lastly, the research shows that under pressure from Europe, the toughening of controls
over migration in the Maghreb countries affects not only migrants who are trying to reach
Europe but also the majority who settle in the Maghreb. Today there is a serious risk that
the Saharan towns, which were once staging points on the great migration trails, will
become dead ends.
Annual report • 2006
S a h a r a n m i g r a t i o n: t h e t r u t h a f a r c r y f r o m p o p u l a r m y t h s
••• Contact: sylvie.bredeloup@up.univ-mrs.fr
••• Publication: Autrepart, revue de sciences sociales au Sud.
Towards a statistical observatory of migration systems
Overall, and in terms of complementary flows, migration patterns in West Africa are still
poorly known; there are few statistics on intra-urban mobility,
seasonal migration or the practice of multiresidence. Nor has
the real scale of international circulation within Africa been
measured. The IRD’s Migration,
mobility, settlement dynamics
and territorial dynamics unit
developed a survey protocol
based on experience amassed in Latin America, Africa and Asia. It is designed for contin
uous monitoring of different forms of mobility at selected representative sites, so laying the
basis for a fully-fledged migration systems observatory. It is designed to be readily adaptable
to different situations or countries and to geographical or socio-anthropological approaches.
Survey questionnaire data entry in the field has been tested. To date, the protocol has been
used in Mexico City and Ouagadougou. It will be extended to sites in Niger and Mali.
•••••• Contact: daniel.delaunay@ird.fr
29
Science guided by ethical principles
and quality management
••• Ethical research
Composition of the Ethics Committee
In 2006 the Consultative Committee on Professional
Conduct and Ethics (CCDE) examined some twenty
research projects and questions raised by IRD staff.
Requests for advice have been increasing steadily since
2003. The Committee also started examining the
question of communication ethics, and continued its
work with other institutions towards launching an Ethics
in Research portal.
Chair: Dominique Lecourt, Professor of philosophy, Denis
Diderot University (Paris 7)
Members:
Rafael Loyola Diaz, Researcher, Instituto de Investigaciones
Sociales, Autonomous National University, Mexico
Isabelle Ndjole Assouho Tokpanou, Honorary President,
Forum for African Women Educationalists, Cameroon
Sandrine Chifflet, Research engineer, UR103, Marseille
Maurice Lourd, Director, IRD Centre, Bondy
François Simondon, Director, Epidemiology and
Prevention unit, Montpellier
Jean-Claude André, Director, European Centre for
Research and Advanced Training in Scientific Computation
Roger Guedj, Professor, Bio-organic Chemistry Laboratory,
CNRS-University of Nice Sophia Antipolis
Vladimir de Semir, Associate Professor of Science
Journalism, Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona, Spain
The Guide of Good Practice in Research for Development,
available in French, English and Spanish, has been issued
to all IRD staff and its partners in the South.
However, the high point of 2006 was the seminar on
Ethics and science in globalisation, jointly organised by
the CCDE, the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de
México (UNAM) and the Academia Mexicana de Ciencias
(AMC). With some forty speakers, the event drew 150
participants including 50 students, 60 researchers and
25 academics.
This dialogue of cultures between Mexico and France on
issues of ethics was a first, welcomed as such by the
speakers, the participants and the Mexican press. A
wealth of exchanges, based on practical examples such
as experimentation on humans, protection of biodiversity
and GMO research, stimulated wide-ranging discussion
and some tentative recommendations.
The seminar on Ethics and Science in
Globalisation drafted a number of
recommendations. Above all, participants
considered that training in ethical
thinking should be a part of education
from school on, that where it already
exists it should be strengthened, and
that the level of scientific literacy in society should be reexamined. A consensus emerged that everything possible must
be done to ensure that society can play an active part in a
debate that concerns everyone’s future. Evaluation processes
also should include a participative role for all stakeholders. The
Mexican participants ended by calling for the creation of a
National Ethics Committee modelled on the CCDE. They considered this essential for achieving agreement on principles and
local realities, making way for wide-reaching discussion that is
more likely to resolve dilemmas and conflicts of interest and to
open the way to the necessary complementarity between North
and South.
••• Quality management gathers momentum
The IRD’s quality management system, designed to ensure that best practice is employed, is gathering momentum: 25
research laboratories, 2 IRD centres (Montpellier and Dakar), 4 IRD overseas centres and 2 central departments have
introduced quality management to optimise their organisation and to improve the traceability and reliability of research
results. Quality managers at all these sites have been trained for the ISO 9001 standard, and many staff have received
quality management awareness training. During the year, research and support training, information seminars, short
training courses, audits and assessments were organised on request.
The Analytical Resources Laboratory in Dakar, which is a service unit specialising in mineral analyses, obtained the 2000
version of ISO 9001. It is the first IRD laboratory outside France to obtain this label. New procedures were introduced,
particularly for research traceability from receipt of a sample for analysis to delivery of the final result. This transparent way
of working has strengthened confidence in the laboratory’s work among its scientific partner teams. The new label is one
result of a more general quality management approach in Dakar and in Senegal as a whole.
•••••• Contact: ccde@ird.fr
www.ccde.ird.fr
Ethics and science
in globalisation
•••••• Contact: dev@ird.fr
The scientific decision bodies conducted
assessments of laboratories and researchers in terms
of recruitment, work and mobility. The Institute
modified its indicators, the better to monitor
fulfilment of its commitments under its new
objectives contract and to assess the efficiency of its
scientific system over and above its obligations. Early
data reveal the high quality of the Institute’s scientific
output and an increase in the time spent on teaching
and supervision.
••• Rigorous assessment
Following evaluation of its structures, the Institute was
able to inject new energy into its research system. This
now consists of 79 units, including 29 joint research units
(UMRs), 38 research units and 12 service units. The
scientific council and commissions assessed 23 units,
including 17 applications for joint research units to be
created or have their terms extended. At the end of the
process, 14 UMRs had their terms extended for four
years and two new ones were created. One of these is
on Plant resistance to bioagressors with the University of
Montpellier 2 and Cirad, and the other on Diversity and
evolution of cultivated plants with the University of
Montpellier 2, Inra and Ensam. The decision bodies also
took part in the inspection committees that visited 13
UMRs created under the Ministry’s 2008-2011
contracts.
••• High quality scientific output
Assessments showed that the IRD’s researchers are
producing science of high quality, on a par with the best
international standards. The number of publications
signed by IRD scientists and cited on the Web of Science
– about 800 publications excluding the human and social
sciences – was an estimated 8% higher than in 2005.
The average number of publications per researcher for
the year was 1.7. About 14% of the articles were
published in top-level journals with a high impact factor in their category. Over 50% were published
in journals ranked in the top quarter (by impact factor) of their disciplinary category.
Annual report • 2006
E v a l u a t i o n, p u b l i c a t i o n s
and teaching
••• Frequent joint publications
IRD researchers produce many more joint publications than the average for French research
institutes. In fact 96% of articles produced by the Institute were jointly signed with partners – 70%
with other French research bodies, 64% with international partners, mainly in the United States,
United Kingdom, Brazil and Italy.
The percentage of joint publication with Southern researchers was about 43%, the main Southern
partner countries concerned being Brazil, Senegal, Cameroon and Mexico. Medical research was
the sector with the highest rate of joint publication with Southern countries (65%).
••• More teaching and supervision work
IRD researchers and engineers gave more than 6,000 hours of teaching in 141 universities and other
higher education establishments in 34 countries. Three quarters of these lectures addressed
students with at least four years’ higher education. Most of the teaching was in France (51%), but
the proportion of teaching hours dispensed in Africa and the Middle East had increased considerably
since 2005 – from 18% to 25%.
The IRD’s main contribution to training is supervision of doctoral research. More than 670 doctoral
students were under supervision in IRD units in 2006, and 44% of researchers and engineers in the
units were supervising doctoral students or directing their research. In 2006, students submitted
139 theses supervised or jointly directed by an IRD scientist. Of these, 76 were submitted by
Southern students.
More than 300 students under IRD supervision submitted dissertations for DESS, DEA or Master’s
degrees. They came from 95 higher education establishments in 24 countries, and 48% were of
Southern origin.
IRD units hosted 400 interns including 175 in France and 251 abroad.
On the professional training side, IRD scientists dispensed nearly 2,500 hours of teaching to
Southern decision makers, technicians and engineers. This teaching mainly concerned the use of
technologies or tools, methods of measurement or analysis, or survey methods.
•••••• Contact: dei@ird.fr
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