ABIC Scholarships for study visits on biodiversity in African Zoology and Wood Biology, Belgium

Through an agreement with the Belgian Development Cooperation, the Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA) at Tervuren (Belgium) has each year a number of scholarships available for scientific study visits to the RMCA collections. These scholarships contribute to the sharing of biodiversity data to African institutions, as stipulated in the Convention on Biological Diversity signed by Belgium.

The RMCA curates more than 10 million biological specimens from Africa, and holds by far the most important zoological collections in the world from central Africa. For instance, the Zoology Department counts 150.000 birds, 200.000 amphibians, 40.000 reptiles, 90.000 mammals, 950.000 fishes, 6 million insects and 1 million other invertebrates.
These collections originate for more than 80% from Congo, Rwanda and Burundi (see more at www.africamuseum.be). The Xylarium of the RMCA also counts on a very important collection of more than 60.000 wood specimens and 14.000 different types of wood. It is an essential reference center
with a huge amount of documentation on wood and tropical trees. The specimens are used for new taxonomic researches and for the ecological indicators countained in their anatomic characteristics. The xylarium database can be consulted online at the following  address : http://www.metafro.be/xylarium

Further Scholarship Information and Application