African Zoology

In 2007, the Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA) has started the SABIN (Sub-Saharan Africa Biodiversity Network) initiative.
Its aim is the development, the installation and the maintenance of a network of databases on biodiversity, in cooperation with scientific institutions located in Sub-Saharan Africa.

In 2008, this initiative was made concrete with the launch of the CABIN project (Central African Biodiversity Information Network), which focuses on Congo RDC, Rwanda and Burundi.
CABIN is supported by the Belgian General Direction of Development Cooperation, and funded for a period of 5 years. 

• Contacts in the RMCA

  Franck Theeten or Patricia Mergen SABIN-CABIN Project Royal Museum for Central Africa Leuvensesteenweg, 13 3080 Tervuren Belgium Tel.: +32 2 769 56 624 Fax. : +32 2 769 56 642 E-mail : SABIN@africamuseum.be

  Contacts in DR Congo

  Charles Kahindo (Université Officielle de Bukavu)  E-mail :  ckahindo@yahoo.com

  The activities encompassed by CABIN are:

1. The conduction of an assessment and a need analysis in Central Africa, in terms of access to information about taxonomy and biodiversity on Internet.
   (see assessment)
2. The identification of specimen collections that may be digitized and later published on Internet.
3. Capacity Building: the installation of a database and a web portal able to exchange data with the GBIF network (Global Biodiversity Information Facility), together with the possibility for to train and teach staff for the maintenance of this technical infrastructure.
4. Digitization and publishing of these data will take place closely with local researchers and researchers from the RMCA, aided with internationally recognized Internet protocols and software cf: GBIF, TDWG (Taxonomic Database Working Group)]..
   
   We invite our partners who could be interested by the SABIN project to publish their scientific papers in the Journal of Afrotropical Zoology. (JAZ)
   More information on how to submit your paper to JAZ : http://www.africamuseum.be/publications/journals/JAZ

• African datasets of GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility) sorted by country
• Links on biodiversity and wildlife conservation