Staff directory
Patricia Mergen
Biology
Invertebrates
Invertebrates
Publication details
Mergen, P., Louette, M., Snoeks, J., De Meyer, M. & Meirte, D. 2007. ‘The Royal Museum for Central Africa in the era of biodiversity informatics’. Tania Walisch (ed), Ferrantia the scientific journal of the Luxembourg National Museum of Natural History, 51, special issue : Proceedings of the first international Recorder conference : 135-141. Luxembourg : Luxembourg National Museum of Natural History. ISSN: 1682-5519. URL: http://www.mnhn.lu/recherche/ferrantia/liste_detail.asp?ID=52 (PR).
Article in a scientific Journal / Article in a Journal
The Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA) is holding collections of about 10 million animal, wood and paleontological specimens, originating from the whole of the Afrotropical region (mainly from the central part) and has in recent years actively collaborated to biodiversity information projects. The collections “Xylarium” (wood samples) and “Prelude” (medicinal plants) of its Metafro Infosys project were in 2003 among the first Belgian collections presented to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) network with the help of the Belgian GBIF node. RMCA is the leading partner of two feasibility studies funded by the European Network of Biodiversity Information (ENBI, work package 13), namely “True Fruit Flies of the Afrotropical Region” and “Albertine Rift databases”. It is a member of the FishBase Consortium which assists researchers and fisheries agents gaining access via the Internet to old and new literature on African fish, fisheries and aquaculture. The RMCA has broadened its activities in the field of access providing and training by setting up the Africa Biodiversity Information Centre (ABIC), which covers all the zoological and botanical groups represented in its collection. RMCA is an institutional member of the Consortium of European Taxonomical Facilities (CETAF) and of the Taxonomical Database Working group (TDWG). Through these networks it is involved in recent FP6 EU projects like SYNTHESYS (Synthesis of systematic resources) and EDIT (European Distributed Institute of Taxonomy). The RMCA is also an active collaborator of the Belgian GNOSIS project (Generalized Natural Sciences Online and Spatial Information System) based among other things on a decentralized infrastructure and on Open GIS Standards. This paper presents the activities of the RMCA in the field of biodiversity informatics and shows how the active participation of the institution in these various initiatives was, and still is beneficial both for RMCA and for its various stakeholders.