So many of us who care about sustainable development and the livelihood of local people do so for deeply personal reasons.
许多人往往会因为强烈的个人因素 而关心当地的可持续发展 和当地人的生活。
I grew up in Cameroon, a country of enchanting beauty and rich biodiversity, but plagued by poor governance, environmental destruction, and poverty. As a child, like we see with most children in sub-Saharan Africa today, I regularly suffered from malaria. To this day, more than one million people die from malaria every year, mostly children under the age of five, with 90 percent occurring in sub-Saharan Africa.
我在喀麦隆长大, 这是一个美丽迷人,物种丰富的国家, 却由于疏于管理,环境的破坏 和贫穷等因素而发展缓慢。 就像今天我们看到的许多 亚撒哈拉地区的孩子们一样, 我的童年也经常遭受疟疾的折磨。 直到今天,每年依旧有 超过一百万人死于疟疾, 大部分都是不到五岁的儿童, 有百分之九十的病例都来自 撒哈拉以南的非洲地区。
When I was 18, I left Cameroon in search of better educational opportunities. At the time, there was just one university in Cameroon, but Nigeria next door offered some opportunities for Cameroonians of English extraction to be trained in various fields. So I moved there, but practicing my trade, upon graduation as an ecologist in Nigeria, was an even bigger challenge. So I left the continent when I was offered a scholarship to Boston University for my PhD.
我 18 岁离开了喀麦隆, 去寻找更好的教育机会。 在那时,整个喀麦隆只有一所大学, 但是邻国尼日利亚 为懂英语的喀麦隆人 提供了各科的一些培训机会。 所以我搬到了那里, 但是凭借在尼日利亚毕业后 获得的生态学家身份去谋生, 对我来说是一个更大的挑战。 所以拿到波士顿大学 的博士奖学金后,我离开了非洲。
It is disheartening to see that, with all our challenges, with all the talents, with all the skills we have in Africa as a continent, we tend to solve our problems by parachuting in experts from the West for short stays, exporting the best and brightest out of Africa, and treating Africa as a continent in perpetual need of handouts.
说起来非常令人沮丧, 在非洲,我们面临 很多困难和挑战, 尽管非洲有人才,有技能, 但我们却倾向于将解决问题的希望, 寄托于空降到非洲 做短期停留的西方专家身上, 同时将非洲最聪明最优秀 的人才输出出去, 并认为非洲大陆 会永远需要别人的援助。
After my training at Boston University, I joined a research team at the University of California's Institute of the Environment and Sustainability because of its reputation for groundbreaking research and the development of policies and programs that save the lives of millions of people the world over, including in the developing world. And it has been shown that for every skilled African that returns home, nine new jobs are created in the formal and informal sectors. So as part of our program, therefore, to build a sustainable Africa together, we are leading a multi-initiative to develop the Congo Basin Institute, a permanent base where Africans can work in partnership with international researchers, but working out their own solutions to their own problems. We are using our interdisciplinary approach to show how universities, NGOs and private business can partner in international development. So instead of parachuting in experts from the West for short stays, we are building a permanent presence in Africa, a one-stop shop for logistics, housing and development of collaborative projects between Africans and international researchers.
在完成波士顿大学的学业之后, 我加入了加利福尼亚大学 环境和可持续发展研究所 的一个研究小组。 那里吸引我的地方在于 在开创性研究方面的声望, 由此带来的政策和计划的发展 拯救了全球数百万的人, 包括一些发展中国家的人民。 研究表明, 每一个有技能的非洲人回国, 会为家乡创造九个正式 或非正式的工作岗位。 共同建设可持续发展的非洲, 是我们计划的一部分。 所以我们通过多方协作 建立了刚果盆地研究所, 它是一个长期的基地, 在这里,非洲人可以作为合作伙伴 和各国研究员一起工作, 找到解决非洲人自己问题的办法。 我们将利用跨学科研究的方式去说明 大学机构,非营利组织和私人企业 如何可以在国际发展中协同工作。 不同于空降到这里 短暂提留的西方专家, 我们现在做的是 在非洲建立一个长期的基地, 一个一站式的服务中心, 提供后勤,住房 以及非洲与国际研究员 合作项目的发展。
So this has allowed students like Michel to receive high-quality training in Africa. Michel is currently working in our labs to investigate the effects of climate change on insects, for his PhD, and has already secured his post-doctorate fellowship that will enable him to stay on the continent. Also through our local help program, Dr. Gbenga Abiodun, a young Nigerian scientist, can work as a post-doctoral fellow with the Foundation for Professional Development in the University of Western Cape in South Africa and the University of California at the same time, investigating the effects of climate variability and change on malaria transmission in Africa. Indeed, Gbenga is currently developing models that will be used as an early warning system to predict malaria transmission in Africa.
这样就可以让像米歇尔一样的学生 在非洲受到高质量的教育。 米歇尔现在在我们的实验室工作, 他的博士研究课题是调查 气候变化对昆虫的影响。 目前他已经取得了 博士后研究员资格, 这让他可以继续留在非洲。 此外,通过我们的本地帮助计划, 年轻的尼日利亚科学家 格本加·阿比欧登博士 可以作为博士后研究员 同时在南非的南开普顿大学 职业发展基金会 和加利福尼亚大学工作。 他的课题是研究气候的变异和变化 如何影响疟疾在非洲的传播。 实际上,格本加正在研究一些模型, 将来可以用作预测疟疾在非洲传播的 一个早期预警系统。
So rather than exporting our best and brightest out of Africa, we are nurturing and supporting local talent in Africa. For example, like me, Dr. Eric Fokam was trained in the US. He returned home to Cameroon, but couldn't secure the necessary grants, and he found it incredibly challenging to practice and learn the science he knew he could. So when I met Eric, he was on the verge of returning to the US. But we convinced him to start collaborating with the Congo Basin Institute. Today, his lab in Buea has over half a dozen collaborative grants with researchers from the US and Europe supporting 14 graduate students, nine of them women, all carrying out groundbreaking research understanding biodiversity under climate change, human health and nutrition.
所以,我们不再把 非洲最优秀的人才输出出去, 而是要培养和扶持非洲本土的人才。 我就是一个例子, 艾瑞克·福克姆博士 在美国接受的教育。 他回到喀麦隆,但是不能保证 拿到他所需的经费, 而且他发现在这里实践 和学习科学太难了, 即使他明白他有这样的能力。 当我见到艾瑞克的时候, 他正打算要回美国去。 但我们说服他留下来, 与刚果盆地研究所合作。 现在,他在布埃亚的实验室 获得了超过六项经费, 正在同美国和欧洲的研究员合作, 支持十四名研究生, 其中九个是女生, 进行开创性的研究, 以理解气候变化下的生物多样性, 人类健康和营养。
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So rather than buy into the ideas of Africa taking handouts, we are using our interdisciplinary approach to empower Africans to find their own solutions. Right now, we are working with local communities and students, a US entrepreneur, scientists from the US and Africa to find a way to sustainably grow ebony, the iconic African hardwood. Ebonies, like most African hardwood, are exploited for timber, but we know very little about their ecology, what disperses them, how they survive in our forest 80 to 200 years. This is Arvin, a young PhD student working in our labs, conducting what is turning out to be some cutting-edge tissue culture work. Arvin is holding in her hands the first ebony tree that was produced entirely from tissues. This is unique in Africa. We can now show that you can produce African timber from different plant tissues -- leaves, stems, roots -- in addition from generating them from seeds, which is a very difficult task.
我们要摒弃非洲需要施舍的想法, 利用我们的跨学科方法 让非洲人找到自己的解决办法。 现在,我们与当地的社团,学生, 一个美国企业家, 以及来自美国和非洲的科学家, 一起合作,想办法实现可持续种植 乌檀,一种典型的非洲阔叶木。 与大多数非洲阔叶木一样, 乌檀被采伐用作木材, 但是我们对它的生态知识 了解得很少。 它们是如何播种的? 它们是如何在森林中 生存八十到二百年的? 这是阿尔文, 我们实验室的一位年轻的博士生, 她在实施一项培育 某种高级生物组织的工作。 阿尔文手里拿的是 第一棵完完全全 由组织细胞培养出的乌檀树, 这在非洲是独一无二的。 我们现在可以证明, 非洲木材可以用 不同的植物组织培育—— 包括树叶,树干,树根, 再加上从种子长成木材, 是一个非常艰巨的任务。
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So other students will take the varieties of ebony which Arvin identifies in our lab, graft them to produce saplings, and work with local communities to co-produce ebony with local fruit tree species in their various farms using our own tree farm approach, whereby we invite all the farmers to choose their own tree species they want in their farms. So in addition to the ebony, the species which the farmers choose themselves will be produced using our modern techniques and incorporated into their land-use systems, so that they start benefiting from these products while waiting for the ebony to mature.
其他学生会用阿尔文在我们实验室 鉴定的乌檀树品种 来培育树苗, 并与当地社区合作, 利用我们自己的树木种植方式, 将乌檀树苗和当地的果树 种到各种农场里, 并让所有的农民 来选择他们想在 自己的农场种植的树种。 除了乌檀树, 农民们自己选的树种, 也将会用我们的现代技术来培育, 并纳入他们的土地利用系统中, 这样在等乌檀树成熟的过程中, 他们就可以用其他的树种来盈利。
Today we are planting 15,000 ebony trees in Cameroon, and for the first time, ebony won't be harvested from the middle of a pristine forest. This is the model for our African hardwoods, and we are extending this to include sapele and bubinga, other highly prized hardwoods.
现在,我们在喀麦隆 种植了一万五千棵乌檀, 开创了 不再从原始森林 采伐乌檀树的先河。 这是我们非洲木材该有的模式, 我们将把它推广到 萨佩莱木和非洲红木上, 这些都是名贵的木材。
So if these examples existed when I was 18, I would never have left, but because of initiatives by the Congo Basin Institute, I am coming back, but I'm not coming back alone. I'm bringing with me Western scientists, entrepreneurs and students, the best science from the best universities in the world, to work and to live in Africa.
如果在我十八岁的时候有这些条件, 我肯定不会离开非洲的。 因为刚果盆地研究所的创立, 我回来了。 但我不是一个人回来的, 我是带着西方的科学家, 企业家和学生, 以及世界上最好的大学 研究出的最好的科学技术, 回到非洲工作和生活。
But we all need to scale up this local, powerful and empowering approach. So far we have half a dozen universities and NGOs as partners. We are planning to build a green facility that will expand on our existing laboratory space and add more housing and conference facilities to promote a long-term disciplinary approach. I want it to offer more opportunities to young African scholars, and would scale it up by leveraging the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture's existing network of 17 research stations across sub-Saharan Africa.
我们都需要将这种因地制宜, 卓有成效的方法发扬光大。 截至目前,我们与六所大学 的公益组织建立了合作, 我们计划 在现有的实验室基础上 扩建一个环保设施, 增加住房和会议设施, 来推动长期的多学科研究。 我希望给年轻的非洲学者 提供更多的机会, 并凭借热带农业国际学院 在撒哈拉以南非洲地区已有 的十七个研究站来扩大规模。
The tables are starting to turn ... and I hope they keep turning, to reach several African nations like Côte d'Ivoire, Tanzania and Senegal, among the top fastest growing economies that can attract several opportunities for private-sector investment. We want to give more opportunities to African scholars, and I long to see a day when the most intelligent Africans will stay on this continent and receive high-quality education through initiatives like the Congo Basin Institute, and when that happens, Africa will be on the way to solving Africa's problems. And in 50 years, I hope someone will be giving a TED Talk on how to stop the brain drain of Westerners leaving your homes to work and live in Africa.
事情已经开始有起色了, 我希望继续保持这个势头, 延伸到像科特迪瓦, 坦桑尼亚,塞内加尔 这几个经济增长速度排在前列的 非洲国家, 来吸引对私营企业的投资机会。 我们想为非洲的学者 提供更多的机会, 并盼望看到将来某一天, 大多数非洲知识分子都会留下来, 并通过像刚果盆地研究所 这样的创新 接受高质量的教育。 当那一天到来时, 非洲就可以解决非洲的问题了, 我希望五十年内, 有人会在 TED talk 上 讨论如何防止西方的人才 离开自己的国家 到非洲工作和生活。
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Thank you.
谢谢。
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