The One Forest Vision initiative continues to roll out Pl@ntNet in new regions. As part of this effort, a first training session on the use of the application in the Democratic Republic of the Congo took place from April 11 to 21, 2026. Organized in partnership with the École Régionale Post-universitaire d’Aménagement et de Gestion intégrés des Forêts et Territoires tropicaux (ERAIFT) and the Institut National pour l’Étude et la Recherche Agronomiques (INERA), the mission was led by Daniel Barthélémy (Cirad) and Murielle Simo-Droissart (IRD). Five training sessions were held in the provinces of Kinshasa and Kongo-Central.
Prior to the sessions, a practical guide was shared with participants to help them get started with the tool. It detailed the steps for downloading and installing the application on Android, creating a user account, configuring the phone, and downloading embedded and additional data.
The training sessions then took place at ERAIFT on April 11, 20, and 21, at the Kisantu Botanical Garden on April 13, and at the INERA research station located in the Luki Biosphere Reserve on April 16.
In total, 106 people took part in these sessions. They represented several Congolese institutions: ERAIFT (students and assistants), INERA (staff from the Kinshasa Herbarium and the Luki and Kondo stations), the University of Kinshasa, the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation, the Forest Inventory and Management Directorate of the Ministry of Environment, the Président Kasa-Vubu University in Boma, and the Higher Pedagogical Institute of Kikwit. This diverse audience was defined in consultation with Congolese partners to engage the most strategic stakeholders for One Forest Vision and the development of Pl@ntNet.
A satisfaction survey completed by participants highlighted a very positive reception. More than 80 participants plan to use Pl@ntNet in their professional or personal activities, and the vast majority reported being satisfied with the training. At the end of this first mission in the DRC, 101 Pl@ntNet accounts had been created and more than 1,400 observations shared, covering 489 different species.
The mission also helped enrich the Pl@ntNet database through the botanical collections of partner institutions. On April 14, species from the Kisantu Botanical Garden contributed to strengthening the floristic database available on the platform.
Finally, April 17 and 18 were dedicated to documenting the flora of the Luki Biosphere Reserve. In particular, they enabled the photographing of around a dozen tree species from the network of permanent plots that had previously been little or not represented on the platform.
