Roland Bourdeix

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

ABOUT ROLAND BOURDEIX

Passionate about diversity. I was first French CIRAD student to conduct his doctoral studies (Phd) being based permanently in a southern country (Côte d\'Ivoire, West Africa). Until I still worked in this country, in the Department of Genetics of the Coconut Research Station \"Marc Delorme\" from CNRA (National Agricultural Research Center). From the 1990s, I led a number of projects and expertises in about forty tropical countries, on behalf of Cirad, Bioversity International and the COGENT (the International Network for Coconut Genetic Resources). My research has gradually evolved from coconut genetics to a multidisciplinary approach integrating ethnology and multi functional landscape management. To understand crop diversity, it is needed to look not only for plants but also to humans who cultivate them and their cultural specificity. My interest in design and graphics also conducted me to intervene in the fields of publishing, photography and video. Hundreds of photographs were uploaded online, some of which changing the grand public perception of coconut diversity. I coordinated the first global catalogue of coconut varieties. In 2005, I created the Diversiflora Publishing Corporation and released as author several books, including one on coconut. From 2011 to 2013, I coordinated COGENT (the International Coconut Genetic Resources network). In 2013, we created the NGO Diversiflora International whose aims to promote diversity in all its forms, whether natural (biological) or cultural. Diversiflora is working on very diverse topics, from environmental (for instance urban erosion, crop biodiversity) to societal (child labor, Syrian refugees) aspects. In 2014, I coordinated the REPROCROP project that studies the perceptions and traditional knowledge of farmers for five crops: Banana, Cacao, Coco, Cassava and Oil Palm.