The Director General of CEMAGREF and the Presidents of CIRAD and the IRD are visiting French Guiana and Martinique

French Guiana: focus on the CEBA labex and the SEAS-Guyane remote sensing platform

The 100 laboratories of excellence (labex) chosen on 25 March 2011 include one headed by the University of the French West Indies and French Guiana (UAG). It is the CEBA (centre for studies of Amazonian biodiversity), which conducts multi-disciplinary studies of biodiversity (inventory, characterization, genetics, ecology, modelling). Roger Genet, Gérard Matheron and Michel Laurent will be attending a meeting about this labex on 7 June, on the IRD's Montabo campus.

Another highlight of the French Guiana mission will concern remote sensing. UMR ESPACE-DEV (a joint research unit) is conducting the SEAS-Guyane project (satellite-assisted surveillance of the Amazonian environment). The project, which uses high-resolution data from the Spot 2, 4 and 5 and Envisat (ASAR radar) satellites is intended to stimulate the generation of scientific knowledge and innovative services for sustainable ecosystem management, environmental monitoring and land planning. The day of 8 June will be given over to a tour of the SEAS site. This will be followed by a meeting on trans-border satellite programmes with Brazil, along with a presentation of UMR EcoFog (another joint research unit) in Kourou.

A press conference, scheduled for 9 am on 9 June, on the IRD's Montabo campus, will conclude the stay in French Guiana.

Martinique: stocktake of and prospects for PRAM

Under a partnership between CEMAGREF, CIRAD and the IRD, launched in the 2000s, the Pôle de recherche agro-environnementale de la Martinique (Martinique agro-environmental research platform) became a scientific interest group (SIG) in 2007. PRAM has a staff of around a hundred (researchers, engineers, technicians, PhD students, etc) based at Le Lamentin, and conducts fundamental and applied scientific and technical research aimed at contributing to sustainable, fair development Martinique. Through its systemic disciplinary approach, it aims to take up the dual challenge of taking account of the environment and renewing agriculture, in an island environment with a remarkable wealth of biodiversity but marked by strong constraints.
The joint mission will enable a stocktake of PRAM's operations. Meetings are scheduled with the President of the Martinique Regional Council and the UAG, to look at the scientific and partnership prospects for PRAM.

Lastly, a press conference is scheduled for 12:30 on 10 June, at PRAM.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

CEMAGREF in a nutshell

CEMAGREF is a French environmental science and technology research organization. It is a public establishment reporting to the Ministries of Research and of Agriculture, and conducts environmental research on a territory scale. It is action-oriented, and centres on three major societal challenges: sustainable management of watercourses and territories, natural risks, and environmental quality. CEMAGREF has an annual budget of 115 million euros, of which 31% are drawn from contractual resources, and a staff of 1600, including 950 scientists, split between nine centres in France and 25 research units. It is fully integrated into the French and European research system, and works in support of public policy and in partnership with industrialists (130 research contracts). It is involved in some ten competitiveness clusters.
In 2006 and 2011, CEMAGREF was awarded the Carnot label for its activities as a whole.
www.cemagref.fr

CIRAD in a nutshell

CIRAD is a French research centre working with developing countries to tackle international agricultural and development issues. With those countries, it works to generate new knowledge, support agricultural development, and contribute to the debate on the main global agricultural issues.

CIRAD's research centres on six shared priority lines of research implemented through numerous research platforms worldwide, including seven in the French overseas regions.

It has a global network of partners and twelve regional offices, from which it conducts joint operations with more than 90 countries. CIRAD has a staff of 1800, including 800 researchers. It has an annual budget of 214 million euros, with two thirds provided by the French government.
www.cirad.fr

IRD in a nutshell

The IRD is a French scientific and technological research organization reporting to the Ministries of Research and of Foreign Affairs. It works worldwide, with a head office in Marseilles and two centres in metropolitan France, in Montpellier and Bondy. It has research, training and innovation in partnership operations in more than fifty countries in Africa and the Mediterranean, Asia, Latin America and the French overseas regions. Its projects, which are conducted jointly, centre on issues of vital importance for the South: tropical diseases and diseases of civilization, relations between health and environment, climate change, water resources, food security, tropical and Mediterranean ecosystems, natural risks, poverty, vulnerability and social inequality, migrations, the changing job market, etc.

The Agence inter-établissements de recherche pour le développement (AIRD), which is now part of the IRD, is a force for scientific mobilization that aims to federate French research organizations and universities to work with the South.
www.ird.fr; www.aird.fr

_______________________________________________________________________________________