Why is a biodiversity museum important?
Museums often have two sides, one designed to attract and inform the public, the other designed to help scientists discover and share new knowledge. The Biodiversity Museum at the University of Hargeisa is for scientists. Its holdings include plant specimens, living plants, and a library. It supplements these resources with digital images and records. The museum also serves as a focal point for sharing information about Somaliland’s diversity.
Building the plant collection
A well-documented and accurately identified plant collection is essential for learning to know a region’s plants. It enables people to compare specimens they find with specimens identified by experts. Moreover, as a collection grows, it reveals details of where different species grow, information that is important to development of plans for conservation and restoration. The Biodiversity Museum has two plant collections, one of dried plants and the other of living plants. We are sharing information from these collections via OpenHerbarium.org and are developing fact sheets about individual species that will be shared via this web site.
Working with scientists at other institutions
Museum specimens must be correctly identified if they are to be useful. So where does one start? By asking for help from specialists at other museums! So far, we have asked for - and received - help from scientists in six different countries. Everyone we have asked has been very generous with their time and knowledge. Thanks in large part to their help, several species have been added to Somaliland’s known biodiversity, detailed information is being accumulated for species known to be present, and a critical resource for biodiversity research is being developed in Somaliland. On the left, we show some of the individuals who have helped us identify the plants in the collection.
Using images
Images are a useful resource for learning to recognize individual species, particularly animal species. The Biodiversity Museum is posting images of species known from Somaliland to OpenZooMuseum. There they are combined with written information to provide a more complete resource. The initial focus is on animals, mostly birds, seen around Hargeisa and Laas Geel. The images come from Wikipedia and from knowledgeable individuals who have given us permission to share their images. We thank them for their assistance. Names of photographers are shown with the images.