Proceedings of the 3rd GBIF Science Symposium Brussels, 18-19 April 2005 Tropical Biodiversity: Science, Data, Conservation Edited by H. Segers, P. Desmet & E. Baus Proceedings of the 3rd GBIF Science Symposium Brussels, 18-19 April 2005 Tropical Biodiversity: Science, Data, Conservation Edited by H. Segers, P. Desmet & E. Baus Recommended form of citation Segers, H., P. Desmet & E. Baus, 2006. ‘Tropical Biodiversity: Science, Data, Conservation’. Proceedings of the 3rd GBIF Science Symposium, Brussels, 18-19 April 2005. Organisation - Belgian Biodiversity Platform - Belgian Science Policy In cooperation with: - Belgian Clearing House Mechanism of the CBD - Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences - Global Biodiversity Information Facility Conference sponsors - Belgian Science Policy 1 Table of contents Research, collections and capacity building on tropical biological diversity at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences .........................................................................................5 Van Goethem, J.L. Research, Collection Management, Training and Information Dissemination on Biodiversity at the Royal Museum for Central Africa .......................................................................................26 Gryseels, G. The collections of the National Botanic Garden of Belgium ....................................................30 Rammeloo, J., D. Diagre, D. Aplin & R. Fabri The World Federation for Culture Collections’ role in managing tropical diversity..................44 Smith, D. Conserving inland aquatic biodiversity in the tropics: the needs for a strong foundation with databases and information network .........................................................................................46 Gopal, B. Online access to conservation data: challenges and opportunities.........................................47 Olivieri, S. What should we try to learn about tropical biodiversity, and how can we use that knowledge for conservation? ......................................................................................................................49 Raven, P. GBIF as a resource for biodiversity research...........................................................................50 Lane, M.A. An assessment of animal species diversity in continental waters...........................................55 Balian, E.V., K. Martens, H. Segers & C. Lévêque Changes in phytoplankton and bacterial biodiversity linked to hydrodynamics in Lake Tanganyika ...............................................................................................................................58 Cocquyt, C., A. De Wever, M. Stoyneva, P.-D. Plisnier & W. Vyverman IBISCA: a large-scale study of arthropod mega-diversity in a neotropical rainforest..............61 Corbara, B., Y. Basset & H. Barrios Digitization of the type specimens of Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) from the Royal Museum for Central Africa: before long the pictures on the web ............................................65 Dall’Asta, U. & F. Desmet Mitigation strategy for the Human-Elephant Conflict on Mount Kenya (Kenya): The scope of electric fencing as a plausible solution.....................................................................................72 Hirani, P. The tropical collections of the University of Liège Museum of Zoology: diversity, database and access................................................................................................................................80 Loneux, M. The tropical birds preserved at the University of Liège Museum of Zoology ..........................84 Loneux, M. The Castelnau's fish collection and watercolour notebooks....................................................91 Loneux, M. Tropical insects in collection at the University of Liège Museum of Zoology: a first approach ..................................................................................................................................................95 Loneux, M., P. Grogna, A. Govers, & N. Lizzaraga 2 Albertine Rift zoodiversity: exploitation of the historical data in the Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren.......................................................................................................................101 Louette, M. Intensification of slash-and-burn agriculture in the rural village of Pokola (Republic of Congo): socio-economic context and ecological implications..............................................................105 Maniatis, D. Configuration problem and description logic: towards automated species distribution mapping .................................................................................................................................................122 Pérez Lapeña, B., R.A. de By & F. Corsi One year of taxonomic capacity building by the Belgian Focal Point to the Global Taxonomy Initiative ...................................................................................................................................132 Samyn, Y., A. Réveillon, A. Franklin & J.L. Van Goethem The management of banana (Musa spp.) genetic resources at the IPGRI/INIBAP gene bank: the conservation and documentation status...........................................................................141 Van den houwe, I., B. Panis, E. Arnaud, R. Markham & R. Swennen Biodiversity at the Ghent University Zoology Museum: potential and implementation .........151 Verschelde, D. & D. Adriaens Biodiversity of cucurbits consumed as sauce thickener in Ivory Coast: a capital resource for the economic prosperity of rural women ................................................................................156 Zoro Bi, I A., K K. Koffi, Y. Djè, M. Malice & J.-P. Baudoin EPBRS workshop ‘Innovative research for data acquisition and assessment’, Brussels, Belgium, 18 April 2005............................................................................................................166 Tack, J. Recommendations of the workshop of the European Platform for Biodiversity Research Strategy...................................................................................................................................167 Invited Contributions 5 Research, collections and capacity building on tropical biological diversity at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences Van Goethem, J.L. Head of the Department of Invertebrates, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Vautierstraat 29, B- 1000 Brussels, Belgium. Keywords: biodiversity research, collections, capacity building, tropical biodiversity Abstract The Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences is a natural history research institution and museum financed by the Belgian federal government. Its missions in the field of biological diversity are: (i) zoological research, (ii) monitoring and modelling of the Southern North Sea ecosystem, (iii) curation and management of natural history collections, (iv) public education, and (v) policy advice to the government. Zoological research targets the three levels of biodiversity: (i) ecological diversity dealing with populations up to ecosystems, (ii) organismal diversity from individuals upwards species, and (iii) genetic diversity dealing with the variation between individuals within a population and between populations. Taxonomic expertise is present for many groups of invertebrates and vertebrates worldwide. Focus ecosystems are terrestrial, inland water, coastal and marine. Geographical areas of taxonomic expertise embrace Europe and many other regions of the world in particular sub- Saharan Africa, South East Asia, Papua New Guinea, Indian Ocean, South America, Antarctica and Lake Baïkal in Russia. In the past, research in tropical areas focused on three national parks in the former Belgian Congo and one in Rwanda (1933-61), on Central African great lakes (1946-1954), and on the West African coast of the Southern Atlantic (1948-49). Since the eighties, speciation and phylogeny are studied on a long-term basis in ancient tropical lakes such as Tanganyika and Malawi (cichlid fishes, ostracods), on archipelagos such as the Galápagos Islands (spiders, carabid beetles) and Macaronesia (selected land and marine snail species), and in Central and East Africa (rodents). Besides this area-based research, scientists study the systematics, ecology and host-parasitic relationships of selected taxa in a worldwide perspective. The collections of the Institute, parts of which go back to more than 220 years ago, total 37 million items, and cover virtually all tropical areas. They are complemented by extensive bird ringing data on Belgian breeding birds and migrants with a wintering area in tropical Africa. The RBINS acts as the Belgian National Focal Point to the Convention on Biological Diversity and to the Global Taxonomy Initiative. As such the Institute has developed an international research and training programme in the field of taxonomy and curation of collections. The Institute also participates in data sharing activities, with the aim to make its non-European biodiversity data globally available. An upcoming project will involve the 6 valorisation of iconographic archives and publications on the national parks of the D.R. Congo. Introduction Established in 1846 under the name ‘Musée royal d’Histoire naturelle’ by King Leopold I, the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS) is a natural history research institution and museum financed by the Belgian federal government. It is one of