Celebrating the 54th Anniversary, SEAMEO BIOTROP Launches Biodiversity Saving Program

On 22 February 2022, SEAMEO BIOTROP celebrates its 54th anniversary with the theme “Save Biodiversity for Future Generations”. Several interesting programs were broadcast such as the launch of the 10 B program and the launch of the BIOSsync Studio Podcast.

The Secretary-General (Sesjen) of the Ministry of Education and Culture, Suharti expressed his hope that these programs will be able to increase the achievements and impacts of SEAMEO BIOTROP to support the achievements of the Ministry of Education and Culture in accordance with the Strategic Plan (Renstra) of the Ministry of Education and Culture. “I believe that SEAMEO BIOTROP’s programs also support SEAMEO’s priority areas in education, science, and culture,” he said.

Furthermore, Secretary-General Suharti said, SEAMEO BIOTROP’s strategic programs could encourage multilateral cooperation in the field of education in support of international efforts to reduce the global impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on education. This is in accordance with the declaration submitted by the President of the Republic of Indonesia in the agenda of the Presidents of the G20 countries this year.  

In his remarks, the Director of SEAMEO BIOTROP, Zulhamsyah Imran conveyed his position. “SEAMEO BIOTROP is ready to be at the forefront to support the priority education agenda proclaimed in the President’s Agenda of G20 countries. SEAMEO BIOTROP will join in “Recover Together, Recover Stronger” to support “Save Biodiversity For Future Generations”, through its 54th-anniversary program to support the results of the G20 meeting on education and environmental issues,” he stressed.  

The celebration event was also enlivened with a podcast entitled “Save Biodiversity for Future Generations: SEAMEO BIOTROP’s Contribution to Saving Biodiversity and Prioritizing National Education”. This activity was guided by SEAMEO BIOTROP researcher Harry Imantho by presenting two resource persons namely the Director of SEAMEO BIOTROP, Zulhamsyah Imran, and representatives from the Bureau of Cooperation and Public Relations of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology (Kemendikbudristek), Yunitasari.  

SEAMEO BIOTROP is a regional research center in the field of tropical biology which was established on February 6, 1968. Since then, SEAMEO BIOTROP has continued to provide outstanding services in order to implement its main mandate of continuously addressing critical issues in the field of tropical biology in Southeast Asia.  

The main mandate is implemented through research, training activities, and dissemination of information and knowledge that is closely related to the Integrated Strategic Plan of the Ministry of Education and Culture in order to support the seven SEAMEO Priority Programs, Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030, Conference of the Parties (COP) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), and the ASEAN Center for Biodiversity.

“The effort made by SEAMEO BIOTROP in responding to the challenges of various issues in the field of tropical biology at the national and regional level is in order to convey its vision which also acts as a leading center in promoting and enriching the pure values ​​of tropical biology in Southeast Asia,” said Zulhamsyah. Imran at the hybrid event in Jakarta, Tuesday (22/2).

SEAMEO BIOTROP puts forward a program of activities with the tagline “Save Biodiversity”. The program of activities is in the target of “Tropical Biodiversity from Mountain to Ocean” (MoTO) and is translated into three main programs, namely: 1) Ecosystem Restoration and Conservation, 2) Sustainable Utilization of Biodiversity, Bioenergy, Biotechnology to Support Food Security, 3 ) Resilience in Facing Global Climate

Change. On this occasion, the Director of SEAMEO BIOTROP also said, to accelerate program implementation, SEAMEO BIOTROP launched a program called BIOTROP in 100 Days (BID 100) which has been proven to increase the visibility of SEAMEO BIOTROP and provide input from various stakeholders’ success of the BID 100 program has encouraged SEAMEO BIOTROP to formulate a transformation program called 10 B, namely BIOMA (BIOTROP Management and Administration), BIOTA (BIOTROP Innovate Transformation for Action), BEE (BIOTROP Education Exchange), BIOSOBAT (BIOTROP School of Biodiversity and Technology), BLF (BIOTROP Leadership Forum), BIOMIND (BIOTROP Initiation and Network Development), BIOChar (BIOTROP Charity), BTS (BIOTROP to School), BIOMOP (BIOTROP Media Outreach and Publication), and BLEND (BIOTROP Learning and Enrichment Development),” he explained.