Bio Diversity Research Center Built in Bali

Denpasar (Antara Bali) - As many as 60 people consisting of students, researchers and participants from the United States will conduct a study on bio diversity in Indonesia, said an Udayana University Rector Prof Dr Made Bakta.

"The study will be held at the Indonesian Biodiversity Research Center (IBRC), the Udayana University veterinary medicine faculty Laboratory," he said here Tuesday.

On the Biodiversity Research Center launching in Bali, he said that the research center was built under a cooperation between the United Sates and Indonesia.

The cooperation involved the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology of the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), Old Dominion University Virginia, USA, University of Papua, Manokwari (UNIPA), Diponegoro University, Semarang (UNDIP) and Udayana University (UNUD).     

"The research center is also supported by the Smithsonian Institute of Natural Museum, and funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in 2012," Prof. Bakta said.

The center's establishment in Indonesia was strategic because the country is known to have a mega-biodiversity, but lack of  researchers and publications on marine collections.

"The marine biodiversity is very abundant since Indonesia is a Coral Triangle which is a center of world marine biodiversity," he said.

According to professor Bakta, IBRC is using molecular genetics technology to understand how biodiversity is created, because the information is very important as a solid foundation for more effective conservation. Therefore, the ecosystem of the center of the world marine biodiversity can be conserved.

"Biodiversity related agencies cooperation is considered to be very productive in the future, and also in line with the University's mission as a world class university," he said.

IBRC collaborator and initiator Prof. Dr. I Gusti Ngurah Mahardika said that this institution is a magnet to attract Indonesian and international researchers to conduct studies on biodiversity.

"The center will accommodate research, training, specimen testing services and collection of species," said Prof. Mahardika.

A joint research is also very important in saving biodiversity, said Dr Paul H Barber of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California in Los Angeles, as the principal investigator in the project.

Indonesian capacity to study its biodiversity is  extraordinary, Paul said.

The signing of a cooperation charter between the Rector of the University of Papua, Rector of the University Diponogoro, representative from UCLA, and Rector of Udayana University marked launcing of the IBRC.

A 2009 marine biodiversity research was also presented by the  Indonesian and American researchers.(*)