Added Value of TDWG Biodiversity Information Standards Mergen, P.; Cael, G.; Theeten, F.; Jacobsen, K.; Cooleman, S.; Smirnova, L.; Davy, J. & Lemmer, L.-J.
Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, Belgium Patricia.Mergen@africamuseum.be

Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) was known as the Taxonomic Database Working Group. Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) is a not for profit scientific and educational association that is affiliated with the International Union of Biological Sciences. TDWG promoted the wider and more effective dissemination of information about the World's heritage of biological organisms for the benefit of the world at large. Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) now focuses on the development of standards for the exchange of biological/biodiversity data.
The Royal Museum for Central Africa has a distinct unit of Biodiversity Information and Cybertaxonomy . The museum has been a Institutional member of the international association Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) since 2005.
The unit offers scientific services to the museum s staff and to external partners on Biodiversity Information related studies. It manages the institution s involvement in EUdomain projects such as the Belgian Cooperation, Belgian Science Policy and in-house financial support, ).
Services provided by the unit such as managing and publication of scientific data, species distribution modeling, publication of Natural History collections and libraries related content online are presented in this poster.
The promotion and usage of TDWG data exchange standards and generic data providing software such as ABCD (Access to Biological Collection Data ) and BioCASE (Biological Collection Access Services for Europe.) have greatly facilitated the data and workflow of the Unit. TDWG standards contributed to various projects with different objectives in an interoperable way. This reduced the duplication of databases and data providing portals.
The long term expertise and gained knowledge of TDWG standards enable staff of the unit to contribute to the enhancement of the standards and associated tools and to act as technology and advisory providers in a range of projects.
The common features of our projects are the TDWG standards. This poster demonstrates the significance and utility of wider usage of TDWG standards.