Science news

  • April 2022

    A team of Belgian researchers has described ten new species of small predatory fish from Lake Edward. Scientists have long suspected that this lake between the DR Congo and Uganda is home to exceptional fish diversity.

  • April 2022

    Critical minerals such as lithium and tantalum are used in smartphones or electric cars. They are highly sought-after commodities, being indispensable in modern technologies and for the transition to green energy. The Great Lakes region in Central Africa is geologically rich in minerals that are extracted for these raw materials. Geologists from the Royal Museum for Central Africa study the formation and distribution of these minerals to promote their sustainable and fair exploration and exploitation.

  • March 2022

    Stem growth of tropical trees is reduced in years when the dry season is warmer and drier than normal. This is the main finding of a global study on the sensitivity of trees in the tropics to climate change. The researchers found that the effect of drier and hotter years is larger in more arid or warm regions. This suggests that climate change may increase the sensitivity of tropical trees to climatic fluctuations. 

  • February 2022

    The AfricaMuseum is the custodian of important insect collections, representing a unique chronicle of insect biodiversity on the African continent. The launch of a citizen science project focused on the butterfly and moth collection aims to open it up to a wider audience.

  • February 2022

    Providing an environmentally sustainable and fair food system. This is the general objective of agroecological farming. The AfricaMuseum, in collaboration with African and Belgian partners, is currently coordinating two research projects to measure the environmental and economic performance of agroecological agriculture compared to conventional, pesticide-based agriculture.

  • January 2022

    Fruit flies can cause considerable damage to agricultural crops. The correct identification of pest species is crucial to establish efficient pest control programs. A smartphone app developed by biologists of the Royal Museum for Central Africa in collaboration with Stellenbosch University (South Africa) can help non-specialists identify these potentially harmful fruit flies.

  • January 2022

    Backed by Leonardo DiCaprio, Re:wild, the American Bird Conservancy (ABC) and BirdLife International have launched The Search for Lost Birds, an initiative to find 10 bird species that have not been seen for decades. Among these 10 species is Prigogine's Nightjar, a species described by an ornithologist from the AfricaMuseum and whose only known specimen has been kept in Tervuren since 1955.

  • November 2021

    In Congo en vitrine author Sarah Van Beurden studies the interconnected histories of the Institut des Musées nationaux du Zaïre/Congo and the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren.

  • November 2021

    On 28 October 2021, the AfricaMuseum transferred over 4000 digitised sound recordings of Rwandan musical traditions from its collections to the Rwanda Cultural Heritage Academy. This transfer is one of the projects carried out in the framework of the SHARE programme. This cooperation programme between Belgium and Rwanda aims to share heritage and build capacity in conservation and collection management with museums and research institutes.

  • October 2021

    King Kigeli V Ndahindurwa (1936-2016) was the last king of Rwanda. His short reign from 1959 to 1961 as Mwami of Rwanda, then under Belgian trusteeship, was very eventful.