Abstract annual report 2012 DGD/RBINS Project The year 2012 was the last year of the work programme 2008-2012. During the year 2012 a new agreement between DGD and RBINS for the strategy 2014-2023 has been approved. In 2012 the institutional partnership with the Institut National de l’Environnement et la Conservation de la Nature (INECN, Burundi) was extended to also include an IMAB component (Inventarisation , Monitoring and Assessment of Biodiversity) with a workshop on the monitoring of habitats (‘LEM’) given in Bujumbura, and followed by a practical course in the “Parc national de la Kibera”. At the level of the Clearing House Mechanism (CHM), a follow-up training was given at the INECN, and the national reference center/library on the environment was reinforced by training the librarians. A donation of equipment and 4 series from the RBINS archives about the protected areas of DR Congo were sent to DR Congo and Burundi . In DR Congo, the partnership included capacity training at the university of Kisangani, the publication of a vulgarization lexicon on habitat and vegetation types (the preparation of a second one started this year), and strengthening the institutional partnership with the “Institut Congolais de la Conservation de la Nature” (ICCN). This included a.o. supporting the implementation of the LEM-habitats, support to Congolese students undertaking research in ICCN protected areas, cooperation with the group of geology for economical sustainable development (GECO), teaching tools and lexicons of plants dominant in their habitats. Within the Global Taxonomy Initiative (GTI) we supported projects and workshops in Ethiopia, DR Congo, Ecuador, Vietnam, and we invited 16 foreign visitors to Belgium, coming from Cameroon, Colombia Cuba, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Kenya and South Africa. We prepared the publication of volume 13: Bréviaire de taxonomie des acariens of our series of capacity building manuals, Abc Taxa. The hydraulic marine ecosystem model “COHERENS” team continued providing distance coaching to its trained partners, and gave in house training, to experts from Indonesia, India, Brazil and Peru. Within the framework of the Clearing House Mechanism (CHM), a Pilot project initiated in 2011 to develop a tool for reporting for the NBSAP towards the AICHI targets was tested in 2012 by our CHM partners. We also demonstrated the tool in a side-event during COP11 as well as during an EU CHM network meeting. The EU meeting decided that the principles of the tool are very useful and to continue its development to include indicators. In parallel, we continued in 2012 our webmaster training activities, with workshops in Niger, Ghana and Burundi. We have started to get involved in ABS activities during the Conference of the Parties (COP 11) with H. de Koeijer as pilot for Belgium. As a first result Belgium nominated H. de Koeijer in the beginning of 2013 to participate in an expert meeting to develop a strategic framework for capacity building for Access and Benefit Sharing of genetic resources.