About AETFAT
AETFAT is the largest association of botanists and mycologists working on African flora and funga.
Formed in 1950, its members meet every 3 years to network and exchange knowledge in what is one of the most iconic Conferences in plant and fungal research and conservation in Tropical Africa and Madagascar.
The next AETFAT Congress is due to take place in Accra, Ghana in August 2025, in a historic event that will mark the 75th anniversary of the Association. It is also the first time that the AETFAT Congress is held in West Africa.
Our Story
AETFAT stands for Association pour l’Etude Taxonomique de la Flore d’Afrique Tropicale [in English: Association for the Taxonomic Study of the Flora of Tropical Africa].
It was established at the Botanical Institute of the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium in 1950, and the first AETFAT Congress was held in the Meise Botanic Garden, Meise, Belgium in 1951.
It was intended as a platform for contact among European botanists working on African regional floras in Paris, London, Lisbon, Brussels etc. to report and publish their findings. Thus, historically, AETFAT congresses have been rooted traditionally in taxonomy and systematics of African plants, floristics, and floras for many years. The scope of the Congress has been expanded to include reporting on plant ecology, and the vegetation of Africa. Furthermore, it was agreed that from the 16th AETFAT Congress held in Belgium in 2000 cryptogamic botany should be included within the general theme of the congress. Since then, mycology has been accepted as part of AETFAT Congresses. It is proposed that phycology, and other emerging and relevant disciplines should be included in the 2025 AETFAT Congress.
Over the last 30 years or so the interest and participation of African and Madagascan botanists at AETFAT Congresses have increased greatly. AETFAT has now become the meeting place for botanists and conservationists studying the African (including Madagascan) land plants and fungi. AETFAT also addresses the important issues of conservation and sustainable use of plants and fungi, making available the knowledge on African and Madagascan plants and fungi, for policy formulation by governments.
The meetings are held every three years and have been held in Oxford (1953), Paris (1957), Lisbon (1960), Geneva (1963, 1974), Uppsala (1966), Munich (1970), Las Palmas (Canary Islands) (1978), Missouri (1985), Hamburg (1988). The first meeting to be held in Africa was in Pretoria, South Africa in 1982. Since 1991, AETFAT Congresses have been held in Zomba, Malawi in 1991, in Wageningen, Netherlands, in 1994, in Harare, Zimbabwe in 1997, in Meise, Belgium in 2000. The 17th AETFAT Congress was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 2003, the 18th in Yaoundé, Cameroon, in 2007, the 19th in Antananarivo, Madagascar in 2010, the 20th in Stellenbosch, in South Africa in 2014, the 21st in Nairobi, Kenya in 2017, the 22nd in Livingstone, Zambia, in 2022. In the last two decades, the Association has been holding its Congresses on the African (including Madagascar) soil.
The next AETFAT Congress is scheduled to take place in Accra, Ghana, in August of 2025.
