HUYNH Quang Thien, Vietnam 

Project title: Building capacity on ichthyological research in Vietnam: creating and management of freshwater fish collection at Southern Institute of Ecology

Abstract: 

Southern Vietnam harbours one of the highest diverse ichthyological faunas. Despite limited exploration, many new species of fishes have been recently described from the area. Unfortunately, most of type specimens are currently deposited outside the country while national collections are stored separately in universities and research institutions and curated inefficiently making it difiicult for researchers to access. This causes a number of difficulties for studies in biodiversity assessment, environmental impact assessment, taxonomic revision and conservation planning.
The present project is aimed to improve the capacity of managing ichthyological collections at the Southern Institute of Ecology (under Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology) and thus to enhance its fish studies.

Training location: Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences