Research and conservation
1994
Hecq, J.
After having described the state of research in 1960 and reviewed its evolution during the post-colonial period, this contribution analyses the future prospects of Zaire, Rwanda and Burundi under the present conditions. From this analysis it emerges that efficient agronomic research requires that the donors have coherent policies, and that there exist attractive living conditions for the researchers, security for people and goods as well as functional infrastructures. To ensure that research work is carried out correctly, an autonomous manager should have access to sufficient funds and that, for the first ten years, programmes should deal only with adaptative aspects of research. A reflationary process based on the former rehabilitated INEAC (Institut National pour l'Etude Agronomique du Congo) infrastructure is proposed. In the beginning, results of research would apply only to targeted purposes such as town peripheries, highly fertile areas and export cultivations. The author considers that indispensable measures are urgently to be taken in order to save what remains of the considerable work carried out by Belgium in the field of the conservation of the natural resources : define the priorities for intervention according to available credit, avoid unnecessary retrocessions, heighten people's awareness of the problems of the conservation of natural resources and imply them in the management of reserves and, finally, integrate conservation programmes into a global framework of territorial planning.
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