The Central African Biodiversity Information Network (CABIN) A Contribution to the Sub-Saharan African Biodiversity Information Network (SABIN) Patricia Mergen, Charles Kahindo*, Michel Louette, Danny Meirte, Franck Theeten, Bart Meganck, Garin Cael, Kim Jacobsen, … Royal Museum for Central Africa, Leuvensesteenweg 13, 3080 Tervuren, Belgium * Centre Universitaire Bukavu, DR Congo

Many projects in Biodiversity Information and Cyber-taxonomy A lot of information and data Many collaborations with African partners Many collaborations with partners working on Africa outside of Africa Expertise in taxonomy, biodiversity, trainings and Information standards SABIN Sub-Saharan African Biodiversity Information Network

CENTRAL AFRICAN BIODIVERSITY INFORMATION NETWORK (CABIN) Full title: The Central African Biodiversity Information Network (CABIN), a Contribution to Sub-Saharan African Biodiversity Information Network (SABIN) Activity category : south activity Activity type : provide access to information sources and systems to African countries / partner institutions / researchers Duration : 5 years Promoter : Patricia Mergen (RMCA) Implementation : Franck Theeten (RMCA) Local contact : Charles Kahindo (Regional TDWG Secretary for Africa), Bukavu Framework agreement the Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA) and the Belgian Directorate-General for Development Cooperation (DGDC), June 1998Belgian Directorate-General for Development Cooperation Framework : Info-Sources for Africa

-Assessment of IT resources and Biodiversity Information resources in African institutions -Analysis of priority needs and selection of Biodiversity Information resources to meet GBIF and TDWG standards -Setting up of a thematic Central African portal advertising specifically the information already available through the GBIF network and other networks -African Partners trained on how to access and to use Biodiversity Information Data presented to GBIF WORKPLAN

-Enhance African Partners IT infrastructure to enable them to present data to GBIF - Together with RMCA ICT unit provide more African biodiversity information to GBIF, mirroring activities and implementation of a high level IT infrastructure (for example Geospatial Data Infrastructure) -Train African partners to GBIF and TDWG Biodiversity data standards and sharing tools - Initiate pilot joint research activities between developed countries institutions and African partner institutions by making usage of primary Biodiversity Information available through the GBIF network, for example in the field of predictive distribution modeling, gap analysis, conservation, decision making. WORKPLAN (cont)

Programme CEPDEC (The Capacity Enhancement Programme for Developing Countries) - Sud-expert Plante (France) - Tanzanian GBIF node (Denmark) - Central Africa (CABIN) (Belgium) Global Biodiversity Information Facility GBIF Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) - Interest Group on Biodiversity Information for Cooperation and Development - JRS Biodiversity (foundation) Call for African participation TDWG annual meeting planned in Africa

SABIN/CABIN project: technical implementation plan Structure of the portal website: -Link to CETAF -Link to CABIN (for RD Congo, Rwanda, Burundi)‏ -Link to data outside CABIN Main menuMenu for CABIN Metadata + Institutional informations (sorted by region or country)‏ Data portal (BIOCASE or TAPIR implementations)‏ Site map (with multilingual interface)‏ Acces point sorted by taxon with standardized look and feel Client