This conference is an initiative of the Consortium Congo 2010 (the University of Kisangani, the Royal Museum for Central Africa, the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences and the National Botanic Garden of Belgium) and the ‘Centre de Surveillance de la Biodiversité’ in Kisangani to facilitate interactions and collaborations among Congolese, Belgian and international teams and experts involved in various fields of biodiversity-related research in the Congo Basin.