Before commenting on the situation in separate countries, it is useful to look briefly at the over-all state of natural resources science in Africa. This was reviewed in detail six years ago at a U.N.E.S.C.O. conference in Lagos and there has been no major change in the picture of fragmentation of effort, with as yet no effective machinery for co-operation. Some rather slow pro. gress was made by the C.C.T.A. among the countries south of the Sahara towards the co-ordination and sharing of scarce scientific resources, but this initiative has not yet been effectively regained by its successor organisation, the Scientific and Technical Research Committee of the Organisation of African Unity.