Where my future carreer stems from? 
In 1950, Aubreville, one of the most outstanding French foresters, specialist of ‘French territories in Africa’, quoted: “In French territories of tropical Africa we have come to realize that the exploitation of the most valuable species such as mahogany, iroko, okoumé, etc., has not been balanced by natural regeneration of these species, so that the forest has become impoverished. In fact, the exploitation of certain species will soon be at an end, because there will be no trees to exploit”. This warning from Aubreville did not stop forest resource over-exploitation to continue and species extinction rate to increase alarmingly, and leaving place in some ecosystems, to what Kent Redford called “the empty forest”. The net change of forest area in Africa is the highest among the world’s regions, with an annual net loss, estimated at 5.3 million ha per year, corresponding to 0.78% forest cover. The most rapid annual rates of forest loss are in West Africa (-1.5%). The vegetation in West Africa has been the scene of one of the most rapid deforestation processes in the world, which has gone almost unnoticed by the rest of the world. On the other hand, harvesting non-timber forest products (NTFPs), considered as a valuable source of income for indigenous people, a potential surrogate for timber exploitation, was wrongly supposed to be always sustainable. Over-exploitation of many timber and non-timber forest products took place, jeopardizing the genetic resources of many species. 
 
In this situation, intensive and strategic research program is of great importance to focus primarily on threatened harvested species and define “what can be harvested from our ecosystems? How much and how can that be done?”. Unfortunately, training and commitment of African scientists and decision makers are not always consistent with this huge need of well trained scholars with potential to become future lead scientists, science leaders and outstanding conservationists. According to a report by the International Foundation for Science (IFS), young scientists are specifically becoming so scarce that it is increasingly difficult to find a scientist in international collaboration involving the public and below the age of forty in Africa today. I believe that this lack of excellent young scientists, is a serious drawback for the short and long-term real conservation of Tropical forest resources in the continent. I also strongly believe that the lack of real commitment and the absence of research program development are, in addition to the lack of well trained scientists, the reason why most scientists trained abroad and who come back to their country, get involved in poor-results generating science. This create a lack of self confidence to publish results that are obtained. In fact, many scientists after their PhD, stick with teaching at the university, making research a second objective, but not always important. Because research should be the source of experience to be communicated to students through teaching, this view point is erronous and it weakens the education system. Moreover, promoting long-term sustainable forest resources management in Africa Tropical region, supposed that scientists, and specifically young scientists, think ahead and plan their carreer to fit into that need of constent high quality research, with applicable results. 
 
Where to go from there? 
My awareness of this situation in which my continent and many other developing countries are desperatly laying down, help me to think about what could be my contribution to reverse it: be trained, do high quality research, support and develop conservation progams, and share these experience by training others. I have started with the idea that conservation biology, is one of the main disciplines that can help to pose clearly the problem of conservation in Africa, and to develop adequate approaches for a sustainable use of our forest genetic resources. I put my first step into getting a degree that will increase my knowledge, skills and confidence to carry out research of high quality and work with forest authorities and political decision makers. Completing my Ph.D degree will be a valuable step I would have made, which will be followed up by the development of research programs on the sustainable use and conservation of endangered harvested plants in Africa.  
 
There is a list of national and regional priority plant species developed for Africa by many international forestry institutions such as the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI), the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). This list will be updated and species included will be the focus of my research program. Demographic studies and other population viability analysis methods will be the core of this program, in addition to ethnoecological and genetic diversity studies.  
 
Gathering tools to meet future challenges! 
To be acquainted with all this methods, I joined the Lab. of Dr Eric Menges (in Florida, US), which specialises in plant demography and population viability analysis, to learn about the use of matrix models in demography. I have also worked with the IPGRI Program on Sub-Saharan Africa Forest Genetic Resources (SAFORGEN) where I contributed in starting research programs on assessing the harvesting threat for tree species in Sub-Saharan Africa. This help me to increase my awareness of the problem of conservation of genetic resources in the region. My current PhD study at the University of Hawaii, include taking courses and research credits in ethnoecology, conservation biology and genetic diversity studies. I believe this will help improve my knowlegde and develop a strong background to implement my post doctoral research program as well as train many students and young scientists in Africa, on conservation biology and its use to develop pratical conservation program for endangered harvested plant species. At the University of Hawaii, I am Graduate Teaching Assistant and I consider that to be a great opportunity for me to learn and improve my teaching ability, with the above mentionned goal in mind: research and teaching for development. I am actually connected with students and colleagues in my home country (Benin), with whom I used to collaborate and I can collaborate in such research program. I wish to correct the lack of internal scientific collaboration among forestry scientists that exist in Benin. I believe that such collaboration is important to carry out relevant research and foster existing conservation programs. 
 
Sowing the seed for future harvest! 
Although my first focus is on Africa, I wish, later on, to extend my experience to other part of the developing world (Latin America and South Asia). This will give me a broad view of the forest resource conservation issues in developing world. With this experience, I can efficiently contribute to develop and to implement international programs on forest genetic resources conservation in developing countries. To be able to do that, I will seek for a decision – making position in an international organism, interested forest conservation and sustainable use. 
By financially and technically supporting my carrer goals and projects, ones will have contributed to make my dream for a new conservation science for Africa comes true. This will be sowing a viable seed that will grow to support and be active in worldwide Tropical forest conservation.