Archives and Collections of RBINS
Valorisation of the archives of Royal Belgian Insitute of Natural Sciences, with a focus on biodiversity data originating from developing countries
The Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), as a research institute and natural history museum, possesses extensive archives that consist of specimen collections, maps, photographs, watercolours and illustrations, and a vast amount of scientific publications.
These archives were gathered through research that has been taking place for over than a century. In addition to their work on the Belgian fauna, the RBINS researchers also studied the fauna of many other regions of the world. A few examples include expeditions carried out in Africa (Great Lakes, national parks of DRC), SE Asia (Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia), Papua New Guinea, South America (Galapagos Islands, Argentina), Russia (Lake Baïkal) and Antarctica.
The data collected during these scientific explorations are a potentially extraordinary source of information. Such historical data on biodiversity can be used as baseline information for monitoring studies, restoration of landscapes and ecosystems, and the sustainable use of biological resources.
In some cases, as for the colonial period in Central Africa, this information is only available in the North. For this reason, the RBINS started in 2005, with the financial support of the Belgian Development Cooperation, a project for the digitisation of some of its archives, with the aim of making this information available back to the countries of origin. This work is undertaken as a collaborative project by several departments of the RBINS, under the general coordination of the National Focal Point to the Convention on Biological Diversity.
National Parks of DR Congo
In a first phase (2005-2007), specific attention is given to the archives of the national parks of DR Congo. Following its expeditions in the former Belgian Congo between the 1920s and the 1960s, and its involvement in the management of the national parks of Zaïre from the late 1960s till the early 1970s, the RBINS possesses important zoological collections, a major photo-archive, original maps and has published several hundred publications on these areas (and more specifically on the parks of Virunga, Upemba and Garamba).
This project is carried out in concertation with the ‘Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature’, the institution nowadays in charge of the management of the national parks in DR Congo. Synergies are also being developed with other Belgian institutions working in Central Africa (e.g. Royal Museum for Central Africa, National Botanic Garden of Belgium) and with Belgian projects currently running in the area (e.g. SYGIAP, by the Catholic University of Louvain and Ghent University).
