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04/29/12 - A new Carapa product on the Market
Fair Winds Trading Company is a not-for-profit organization, introducing a line of natural and healthy products, based on indigenous African produce, designed for outdoor enthusiasts. The income from these products will create a revenue stream to support their projects. The NGO Fair Winds Trading Company aims to develop an ethical and sustainable method of international and intercontinental trading through the ecological transportation of fairly traded goods that support bio-diversity. Midgie Magic, is their first product, is the only fairly-traded all-natural midge repellent on the market. The base oil, carapa, is produced sustainably from the oil of a local tree, and is used in Senegal for everything from wrinkle creams to organic pesticides. Combined with other essential oils, it makes a remarkably powerful midge repellent which is believed to work as well as, or better than, anything on the UK market today.
Read more http://www.fairwindstradingcompany.org/
03/08/12 - Several article about Carapa procera from Congo are Plagiarized papers
Retraction Watch reports that "An ecology researcher in the Congo has found himself at the center of a plagiarism scandal that has felled seven of his papers." As Science reports today, Serge Valentin Pangou’s work began unraveling in August 2011 after Wageningen University ecologist Patrick Jansen thought a paper he’d been asked to review for the International Journal of Biodiversity and Conservation seemed familiar — because he’d written many of the same words in a 2007 paper in Conservation Biology. He ran the manuscript through the plagiarism detection software Turnitin, and sure enough, it was about 90% identical. Unfortunately for Pangou, Jansen’s co-author on the Conservation Biology paper was Pierre-Michel Forget."
- “Comparison between field performance of cuttings and seedlings of Carapa procera D.C. (Meliaceae),” published in 2011 in the International Research Journal of Plant Science (removed from the journal’s site)
- “Tree selection for fruit/seed production in Carapa procera D.C. from wild stands in the rain forest of Congo,” published in 2011 in the International Research Journal of Plant Science (removed from the journal’s site)
Press release of the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle [pdf] (in french) - added 13 Feb 2012.
"Cut & Paste": everything you always wanted to know about plagiarism in tropical ecology by Pierre-Michel Forget (MNHN, Brunoy, France) [pdf] - updated 26 March.
02/08/12 - A Synoptic Revision of Carapa (Meliaceae)
A Synoptic Revision of Carapa (Meliaceae) by David Kenfack (photo) has been released in the December (2011) issue. Kenfack, D. (2011) A Synoptic Revision of Carapa (Meliaceae). Harvard Papers in Botany, 16, 171-231.
Abstract. Carapa comprises trees confined to tropical forests in Africa and America. Previous revisions of the genus based primarily on herbarium specimens recognized few variable species, but also stressed the need for further research to clarify and understand the patterns of morphological variation in these species complexes. In the present revision, 27 species are recognized in Carapa of which 16 occur in Africa and 11 in America. Nine new species are described and illustrated, and a new combination is proposed. The remaining 17 species correspond to either recently described species or previously described species that had been placed in synonymy. A key to the 27 species and their distribution maps are provided.
02/07/12 - New paper about Carapa guianensis in Brazil
Control of Carapa guianensis phenology and seed production at multiple scales: a five-year study exploring the influences of tree attributes, habitat heterogeneity and climate cues by Christie A. Klimas, Karen A. Kainer, Lúcia H. Wadt, Christina L. Staudhammer, Valéria Rigamonte-Azevedo, Manoel Freire Correia and Lílian Maria da Silva Lima. Journal of Tropical Ecology. 28: 105 - 118. Read Studies
02/05/12 - Forthcoming : a new paper about Andiroba (Carapa guianensis) in Brazil
The journal Forest Ecology and Management is publishing a Special Issue: Multiple Use of Tropical Forests: From Concept to Reality, volume 268 (14 March 2012), edited by Manuel Guariguata (CIFOR) and Plinio Sist (CIRAD). One paper is about The economic value of sustainable seed and timber harvests of multi-use species: An example using Carapa guianensis by C.A. Klimas, K.A. Kainer (Gainesville, FL, USA) and L.H. de Oliveira Wadt (Acre, Brazil). This paper has been presented at ATBC-SCB Africa in Arusha, Tanzania, in June 2011.
Christie Klimas in the field. (c) C. Klimas.
01/06/12 - Interview of Pierre-Michel Forget at France Info, Info Science
Marie-Odile Monchicourt (Info Science, France Info) interviewed Pierre-Michel Forget (released 6 January 2012) about the discovery of seed dispersal of Carapa grandiflora by Giant rat Cricetomys kivuensis in Rwanda, a study published in Biotropica in November 2011. The interview is on line Here. More about Carapa grandiflora.