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Le journal de l'IRD
n° 28 January-February 2005
Translator: Nicholas Flay
Abstracts for the international issue
p. 3 News
M
Green heritage
© H. Hänni (SSEF)
Certified-origin
rubies and sapphires
p. 10 Research
Plants and local knowledge in Guiana
© IRD/É. Rhéault
easurement
of
the
18O/16O isotope ratio
provides means of certain accurate identification of the geographical origin of rubies and sapphires.
Every particular deposit has its own specific
isotope ratio. One hundred and thirty
p. 3 News
I
deposits in 30 countries have been sampled.
The isotope information
combined with standard gemmological characteristics will form the
basis of a database of these precious stones
according to their geographical origin.
© IFP
Under-employment excess
T
wo series of surveys on employment
and the informal sector were
conducted in 2001-2003 by national
statistics institutes working with Afristat
and the researchers from IRD Research
Unit ‘Development, institutions and
long-term analyses’. Its objective was to
study the characteristics of the jobs market in the economic capitals of seven
West African countries (Benin, Burkina
Faso, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo and
Ivory Coast). The main observations are
that 60 % of people over 10 years are
active. Unemployment approaches 11
%. However, compounding this is
under-employment, which affects 67 %
of people of active age and is the main
obstacle to improvement of the employment market situation.
researchers have been studying plants
and their uses in Guiana for 30 years.
They are participating in a local-level scheme to bring out the value of these plants
and their properties. The different communities can thus contribute to conserving the
associated knowledge and re-appropriate
their cultural heritage, by manifesting the
wealth of the body of knowledge and
know-how at their disposal. The researchers therefore focused on studying traditional remedies used by three ethnic groups
of Guiana at a time when the economic
issues associated with biodiversity were not
RD
yet on the agenda: the Creoles and the
Amerindian peoples Wayãpi and Palikur,.
These surveys have led to the discovery of
new therapeutic compounds. They are
continuing, with the dual aim of isolating
the main active components of traditional
remedies and of determining whether or
not their use should be recommended, in a
region where up to 70 % of the population
practise self-treatment. The plants from the
Guianan forest are also used for food, household and craft materials (for wickerwork
and so on). Enhancing the potential benefits of local knowledge, by means of cooperative community projects, for instance, in
which the local people are closely involved,
thus contributes to the continuing survival
of these bodies of knowledge and techniques.
p. 11 Benefits of research
p. 5 Partners
Quinolines with antiparasitic properties
50 years of Pondichery’s Institut Français
T
he Pondichery Institut Français celebrated its 50th anniversary in February. In five
decades of activities, it has built up from its multidisciplinary mission (human sciences,
social sciences, ecology) an immense body of knowledge on the cultures, societies and environments of India. The largest institute abroad of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it
has thus become a well-situated observation point to follow the sustainable development of
countries of the South as a whole, for France and also for Europe.
C
urrent treatments against the parasitic
diseases leishmaniases (sandfly fever)
or trypanosomiases (like sleeping sickness)
find only limited success in terms of efficacy and tolerance. Research undertaken in
Latin America by researchers of the Service
Unit « Plant biodiversity, knowledge and
valorization », in conjunction with the CNRS,
the University of Paris-Sud and the Institut
Pasteur, have just shown that synthetic qui-
nolines offer promising new potential for
therapy against these parasitic diseases.
Three compounds have already been identified because of their biological action, the
absence of harmful side-effects and the
ease with which they can be synthesized.
Accounts were also given on the way in
which the Quality control process can be
adapted to the nature of the work in the
different laboratories and services.
p. 7 Research
Archaeology in Sumatra
p. 11 Benefits of research
Plant-centred cultures
Quality control: Dakar, an example to follow
© IRD/ K. Assigbeste
A
p. 6 Partners
Young associate research teams
Linked together for autonomy
S
ince 2002, the IRD has been supporting
the creation of Young Associate Teams
of researchers in the countries of the South
associated with the Institute’s Research or
Service Units. This is done through a scheme aiming to encourage the emergence of
a permanent research team by bringing
together a diverse set of skills and areas of
competence. Calls for tender for proposals
were issued in 2002 and 2003. Then in
2004 the Department of Support and
Training for the Scientific Communities of
the South decided to break off procedures
in order to take stock of the situation. Now,
a new call for tenders is being launched
with selection criteria that have been adjusted. First the financial support period is
extended from two years to three in order
to allow the young team to set itself up and
consolidate. Secondly, the IRD Research Unit
that requires a link-up will have to present
a letter of agreement setting out the way in
which it intends to work with the Young
Associate Team in order to ensure that the
link-up operates in a balanced way. This
procedure has the objective of allowing
young researchers from countries of the
South to acquire autonomy within the local
system of research.
rchaeology takes on a spatial and even a contemporary, topical aspect when combined with geography and anthropology. IRD researchers and their partners adopted this
original interdisciplinary approach in investigations they have been conducting since 2000
on the history of human settlement in Sumatra, Indonesia. The first results, for the strictly
archaeological part of the investigation, provide a continuous detailed cultural chronology
of the succession of human communities that have settled in Sumatra, from the Palaeolithic
to the Age of metals. In the uplands, examination of archaeological relics and representations of the past has shed light on the changes and development of ancient and present
settlements and the way in which people use the past to establish their territories and affirm
their identities. The drawbacks inherent in the strictly archaeological approach, founded
solely on information from the physical remains preserved, have been compensated by
study of the « plant-centred societies », whose technology was based on the use of plants
as raw materials for tools, weapons and everyday objects.
In order to build a picture of the dynamics of the occupation of the region, the researchers
have concentrated on the technical data, which prove to be crucial for investigating the cultural solutions adopted depending on the potential presented by the environment.
p. 8-9 Research
Agriculture with moderated methods
Predator against predator
H
ow can pests (insects, nematodes,
bacteria and so on) be controlled
without resorting to costly and highly polluting chemical agents? The question is
particularly pertinent in the countries of the
South. IRD researchers are seeking answers
by exploring different lines of research. One
of the objectives of this work is to obtain
detailed characterization of antagonist
organisms potentially useful for biological
control and to understand how they adapt
to genetic, population or behavioural
changes that occur in plant-eating insects.
This feature draws on several examples of
studies conducted by the Institute.
Control of nematodes, parasites which
cause substantial damage to tropical
crops, is at the focus of a method involving alternating crops of market produce
and groundnuts or cereals. This system,
implemented in Senegal, is favourable for
populations of bacterial parasites of
nematodes to concentrate.
In Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador,
potato crops are ravaged by several species of tenia moth, including Tecia solanivora. This formidable insect is also a
threat to crops in Europe and Africa.
Research has indicated the possibility for
control of this pest by using endemic
viruses.
Some rice crops are victims of pathogenic
organisms (viruses, fungi or bacteria) in
China, Southern and South-East Asia.
Research projects have shown that the
presence of several resistance-conferring
genes in the same variety of rice or the
simultaneous growing of several varieties
endowed with different monogenic resistance characteristics often help extend
the duration of resistance.
Another example of biological control is
the modification of ecosystems, which
can also have an impact on the environment. Thus, in order to restore in certain
lakes a balance between zooplankton
and phytoplankton, researchers have altered the proportions of two types of omnivorous fish, by reducing the bottom-feeding species and increasing numbers of
pelagic species.
T
he IRD’s centre in Senegal has for several years operating ‘Quality in research’
procedures. The latest event concerning
this was a seminar in December 2004 with
the participation of two Quality control officers from the IRD Montpellier centre.
Reports on personal experiences, pointing
the way to better appreciation of the direct
p. 15 IRD World
Research Units and Service Units
A look to the future
T
wo-thirds of the IRD’s Research Units
or Service Units, 43 in all, were set up
or renewed at the beginning of the year.
The main objectives of the strategy for
determining the creation or renewal of
units and deciding their emplacement and
assignment of personnel in various cor-
implications for the management of personnel and facilities, and the use of laboratory record books were two of the main
topics of this knowledge transfer exercise.
Accounts were also given on the way in
which the Quality control process can be
adapted to the nature of the work in the
different laboratories and services.
ners of the world are to: avoid too great a
geographical dispersal of the network;
ensure the deployment of critical masses
between the units, which from now on
must have at least five IRD researchers;
emphasize the Institute’s strong points
and improve conditions in which direction
and management of the units can be
accomplished. At the end of this process,
36 Research Units and seven Service Units
have been founded or renewed.
p. 16 Forum
Biopiracy or
research?
W
ith the advances
made in molecular
engineering and in the development of biotechnology,
the living being has since the
end of the 1980s become an
object of economic activity.
In parallel, especially in Latin
America, strong identity-driven movements
have been forming. They stem from campaigns by rural communities threatened by
capitalistic modernization that denounce
the risks of appropriation or biopiracy of
their resources and their crops. In a context
where bioprospecting has become a source
of geopolitical conflicts, how can scientific
research conducted in the industrialized
countries of the North be reconciled with
property rights over raw materials originating in the South?
Consult the articles in full on the IRD Internet site : http://www.ird.fr