The National Center for Forest Seeds (CNSF) is a State Public Establishment (EPE) that operates in the field of research/development in forest genetic resources in general and forest seeds in particular. It is headquartered in Ouagadougou (Kossodo district) in the north of the city, on the road to Kaya.

Created in 1983, following the years of major droughts in the Sahel, its mission is:

“The production and dissemination of seeds, the contribution to the implementation of national seed research and training programmes”.

The vision of the CNSF is to “Maintain itself as a center of excellence in research on RGFs in general and on forest seeds in the Sudano-Sahelian subregion in particular”

From this mission, there are four specific objectives relating to research, namely:

- support programs to restore plant cover through the production of good quality seeds and ensure their dissemination;

- contribute, in collaboration with the National Center for Scientific and Technological Research (CNRST), to scientific research on local forest species, to their popularization and to the control of conditions for the conservation and germination of seeds;

- contribute to the conservation of biological diversity through the development of conservatories (in and ex-situ);

- contribute to peasant self-promotion through a sustained transfer of technical knowledge to the world