French Guiana

CIRAD has had a base in French Guiana for almost 40 years, and with its partners, it constitutes a centre of excellence for natural forest resorce knowledge and managament. Its work covers tropical forest ecosystem funtioning and biodiversity, wood, and cultivated tree crops such as cocoa, rubber, coffee and several types of palms. It also focuses on issues surrounding the conservation, management and use of biological resources.
Paracou forest station © B. Lacombe

Paracou forest station © B. Lacombe

CIRAD's activities in French Guiana centre on wood, forest ecology, studies of carbon dynamics in deforested grassland systems linked to forests and several leading tropical crops: rubber, cocoa and coffee.

CIRAD has around 50 permanent staff members in French Guiana, including a dozen researchers who supervise PhD students, backed by a technical and administrative team of nine.

Four sites

  • The Kourou agricultural research campus is home to CIRAD's correspondent in French Guiana and to forestry research teams and technical installations (micro-chocolate production unit, greenhouses, etc).
  • The wood and tree science laboratory, on the Pariacabo industrial estate, Kourou.
  • The Combi station, housing the collections belonging to the Tree Crop Biological Resource Centre (cocoa, coffee, rubber, palms, fast-growing forest trees) which is ISO 9001-certified. It also conducts varietal assessment or cropping system trials.
  • The Paracou station, for studies of natural forests and of gas exchanges in the light of climate change (carbon). The Paracou site covers 125 ha, and is part of several international forest networks to study climate change and its impact on the Amazon forest. Some 70 000 trees have been mapped and measured at regular intervals since 1984. This information is vital for understanding long-term forest ecosystem functioning.

Equipment and installations

CIRAD has advanced installations and equipment at its different sites.

Experimental plots

  • 30 hectares of cocoa, coffee, rubber and palm collections.
  • 42 hectares of fast-growing forest trees and local species.
  • 125 hectares of natural forest, to monitor 70 000 trees shared with INRAE within the ECOFOG joint research unit.
  • 27 plots covering 110 hectares of natural forest, to assess the soil and climate effects and impact of climate change, with the Office national des forêts.

Laboratories and greenhouses

  • A molecular genetics laboratory shared with INRAE, within the ECOFOG joint research unit.
  • A wood physical property characterization laboratory, within the ECOFOG joint research unit.
  • A biological control laboratory.
  • An inoculation chamber and nurseries (including State-approved quarantine laboratories for plant material introductions).

An information resource centre

The centre is managed by AgroParisTech, on the Kourou agricultural research campus.
Visit the centre's website.

Research units and CIRAD staff

•    UMR ECOFOG, with a team of almost 15 people
•    UMR AGAP, with a team of five people
•    UMR AMAP, with two people
•    UMR ABSys, with two people
•    UMR INNOVATION, with two people
•    UMR PHIM, with one person
•    UMR SELMET, with two people
•    UPR BioWooEB, with one person.
   
The above units and their teams in French Guiana work with a number of international research teams. They are supported by numerous missions.

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