CEBioS mission in Vietnam

Description

From 31 October to 5 November 2016, 2 CEBioS members, Drs K. Baetens and M-L. Susini Ondafe, were in Vietnam to meet with local partner institutions.

Geographical coverage

Vietnam,

Keywords

research, follow-up, modeling, taxonomy,

Release date

18/11/2016

Details (HTML)

The aims of the mission were:

The first part of the week was dedicated to meet with VNMN partners, among which Dr Thai Hong Pham, a GTI alumnus who received several trainings at the RBINS since 2007. He works closely with Jérôme Constant (RBINS). They have organised numerous field expeditions in Vietnamese protected areas thanks to GTI funding.

This work led to a better knowledge of the Vietnamese entomofauna and built the skills of Vietnamese researchers and technicians. It also enabled the improvement of entomological collections and of collection management and the study of the material preserved at VNMN. Moreover, many new species have been described.

Since scientific research should help decision making in the field of biodiversity conservation and sustainable use (e.g. CBD Aichi target 19), the results should be shared with the national and regional competent authorities of Vietnam in strong ownership. To this aim, we plan to organise a restitution meeting in Vietnam in April 2017. Our mission enabled us to further plan this meeting.

The second part of the week was dedicated to working with IMER, one of CEBioS partner institution. They are currently working on a modeling project that aims at better understanding the marine dynamics for the benefit of management and conservation of marine biodiversity in Vietnam.

The project was initiated in 2015. The project region is situated in the world famous Ha Long Bay and makes good progress. The data are used to understand the underlying causes of the coral bleaching process in an area that is under threat by the many ongoing economic activities.

Expiration date

27/01/2017