About

This site has been made to show  the rich archives that the Royal Belgian Institute has inherited from the former "Institute des Parcs nationaux du Congo belge". These archives were build up during the period that RBINS was responsable for the management of the Parcs and the sister Institute in Congo.

The archives contain different items that are of high scientific value and usefull for the monotoring of biodiversity and vegetation changes in the national parcs over a period of almost 50 years. They contain scientific publications on the  biodiversity of the parcs, a photo and slide  archive,  specimen of the animals of the parcs and also the famous "Ishango bone".

To make the archives better known to a large public and to repatriate the information to the current manager of the Parcs, l'Institute congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature, a project was started in 2003 that had as main goal to digitise the archives. Since 2003 many people have visited the archives and used information for publications, further research and exhibitions. This site will give a small overview of the material that is still available.

Special thanks go to Dr. J. Verschuren who was responsible for the archives untill his retirement, and who ensured that most elements of the archives are well classified.

For additional information on the archives, requests for using the photos in publications or any other question, please contact webmaster-chm (at) naturalsciences.be