Congo Basin Institute

SETTING THE FOUNDATION FOR A SUSTAINABLE AFRICA

Central Africa is home to great biodiversity and on pace toward a population of four billion people by the turn of the next century. Yet the region is susceptible to severe impact from climate change. Urgent questions face the region, such as how to combat climate change and care for the people and wildlife — and how to ensure there is enough food and water.

“We’re really at a critical juncture right now,” says Tom Smith, Center for Tropical Research, UCLA, who has worked in the region for three decades. Another problem facing the region is “brain drain” — a phenomenon where talented researchers and workers from the region leave to study and work abroad.

Based in Cameroon, the Congo Basin Institute (CBI) is UCLA’s first foreign affiliate — a multi-institutional, worldwide project led by UCLA that includes 36 UCLA faculty members from 17 divisions and schools. The CBI is dedicated to finding solutions to the interconnected issues of climate change, human disease, food and water security, and loss of biodiversity.

The CBI aims to find long-term solutions for the challenges facing the region. One of the first steps is building eco-friendly infrastructure where researchers can learn side by side. “In this case you can’t have the programs, you can’t build the capacity, unless you have a place where all of this can come together,” says Smith.

Your gift to the CBI fund can help campus expansion efforts including:

• a Distance Learning Center
• a Conference Center
• Dormitories and Collaborative Space
• a Digital Library and Geographic Information System (GIS) Center
• Molecular Genetics and Analytics Laboratory
• opportunities for UCLA students to study in Central Africa

Central Africa may be half a world away from many UCLA supporters, but you can help the region by giving to the CBI fund today. Your gift to the Congo Basin Institute can help create and expand physical spaces that facilitate research to solve the region’s problems.

“This has the potential to change Central Africa,” says Smith.