Prunus africana is widespread on African mountains, from Cameroon south to the Cape and, despite being a major source of pharmaceutical products important for local income generation, remains an essentially wild resource. The products are traded locally and used in traditional medicine, as well as entering international trade as the basis of drugs for the treatment of prostate gland hypertrophy. Locally, around Mt. Cameroon, 14% of rural households were found to collect bark for traditional use and, while the value of local trade remains unknown, the export trade from Africa has been valued at 150 million US dollars per year, creating rural employment in areas where the tree is found. Over-exploitation of the tree bark from natural forest is seriously reducing the limited resources of this tree species, threatening: rural livelihoods, future sources of the pharmaceutical product, and the integrity of montane ecosystems in Africa.

Sclerocarya birrea is widely distributed through the dry lowlands of Africa, both north and south of the Equator. It occurs north of the Equator from Senegal in the west to Somalia in the east, and extends southwards into central and southern Africa, from the Indian ocean coast of South Africa, across to the Atlantic coast of Namibia and Angola. Universally known in southern Africa as Marula, where it is the most important of the indigenous fruit trees, exploited mainly by women for use as food, fodder, medicine and wood. The fruit is traded locally, where its exceptionally high vitamin C content and storability make it important nutritionally. There is also an increasing industrial interest, on an international scale, in a stable oil extracted from the kernel that is superior to sunflower and maize oil. Pilot plantations have been established in South Africa and Israel, but the potential of what remains an undomesticated resource has not been realised by the rural poor across its natural range. Village-level tree development initiatives, that can be encouraged by the extension literature produced in this project, are required to ensure that the potential value of the resource is maintained and realised locally.

To provide a comprehensive and critical review of biological information within a socio-economic and cultural context, as the first step in securing undomesticated tree resources of two high priority species (Prunus africana and Sclerocarya birrea) that are important to maintaining rural livelihoods but threatened by over-exploitation.

• Species bibliographies for P.africana and for S.birrea. These will be made available electronically over the Internet, and will be circulated as hard copy to relevant target institutions in Africa.
• Species distribution maps for P.africana and for S.birrea. These will initially be distributed amongst collaborators and ultimately incorporated in 3 and 4 below.
• Extension materials in English on P.africana and on S.birrea. French translation of the P.africana material and French and Portuguese translations of the S.birrea materials.
• Definitive species monographs on P.africana and on S.birrea.