Venue
Created in 1963 by Protestant missionaries, the ‘Université Libre du Congo’ became the Kisangani campus of the former ‘Université Nationale du Zaïre’ (1971). In 1981 it was renamed ‘Université de Kisangani’ (UNIKIS). Historically, UNIKIS has been responsible for training biologists for the entire DRC. Therefore, UNIKIS academics have an important network in the country, not only in other universities with biology and ecology in their programs, but also in research institutions, NGOs or (inter)national organisations active in the domain of ecology, biodiversity and its conservation.
With its geographical location in the centre of the Congo Basin, Kisangani is ideally situated to host a conference on the biodiversity of the Congo Basin.
The conference will take place at the UNIKIS Faculty of Sciences campus, in the city centre. The campus offers several services and facilities, with modern classrooms and laboratories recently built or renewed with EU and World Bank funding. The ‘Centre de Surveillance de la Biodiversité (CSB)’ is also located on the campus. This Biodiversity Monitoring Centre, was created in 2010 by the Minister of Higher Education of the DRC in collaboration with the Africa Museum (RMCA) of Tervuren, the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS) , the Botanical Garden of Meise in Belgium (BGM) and the University of Kisangani with the financial support of the Belgian Development Cooperation (DGD) and the Belgian Federal Science Policy (BELSPO). It was inaugurated in 2014.
The campus features a botanical garden and a zoological museum.
Lunches will be served in the cafeteria of the campus.
Hotels accommodating the conference participants, will be connected to the conference site by a free bus service. Rides will take approximately 15 minutes.
