Colin Watkins

Wild African Violets

Saintpaula goetzeana.

Chumbe cover.

Town/RegionCountryCategoriesDate
Tanzania, United Republic ofAfrica, Plants19 Oct 2003

The aim of this project is to collect the four species of the genus Saintpaulia not held in any botanic garden in the world. This will lead to the maintenance of complete collections both in-situ probably at Amani and Arusha and ex-situ at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Edinburgh and elsewhere in the UK and Europe. In turn, this may lead to fund-raising for an endowment to set up a National Botanic Garden, arboretum and seed bank dedicated to endemic species of the Eastern Arc Mountains and Coastal Forests of Tanzania- an internationally recognised biodiversity hotspot but one where the threats to these fragmented forests are especially high.

Find out more from: colin.watkins@wobs.demon.co.uk

Project Update: August 2005

The Wild African Violet Project has been developed and is renamed the Saintpaulia Project. This has been made possible by grants from the Rufford Small Grant for Nature Conservation, the Linnean Society, the Simpson Trust and the Watkins family which will allow the project a second phase which will lead to formalisation and an application for substantial funding from a major development agencies such as the Darwin Initiative.

The Saintpaulia Project aims to support conservation and to provide skills and income for Tanzanians by:

•equipping and assisting Tanzanians to compile local area wild flower guides;
•providing formal botanical illustration training for Tanzanian artists.
•collecting and identifying wild flowers particularly the Gesneriaceae endemic to the Eastern Arc Mountains.

The continuing development of the Saintpaulia project has been made possible by the unstinting support of in-country conservation NGOs, the University of Dar es Salaam and Government Agencies such as the Commission on Science and Technology and the National Herbarium of Tanzania.

Final Report

Read about the activities undertaken and findings of this project in the final report below.

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Final Report692.5 KB

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