Wednesday, 23 February 2022 on 11:22am
On 22 February 2022, SEAMEO BIOTROP celebrated its 54th Anniversary with the theme "Save Biodiversity for Future Generations" through a blended platform. Several programs are presented in the celebration event, such as the launch of the products of the Ten Bs Program and the launch of the New Podcast Studio. The celebration event also presented Podcast on Save Biodiversity for Future Generations: SEAMEO BIOTROP's Contribution to Saving Biodiversity and National Education Priorities, hosted by Mr. Harry Imantho, MSc, a researcher of SEAMEO BIOTROP, with two outstanding resource persons Dr Zulhamsyah Imran, the Director of SEAMEO BIOTROP and Ms. Yunitasari from the Bureau of Cooperation and Public Relation of the Ministry of the Education, Culture, Research and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia.
SEAMEO BIOTROP as a regional research center on tropical biology was established on 6 February 1968. The Center has improved its excellent services in implementing the Center’s main mandates to continuously overcome the critical issues of tropical biology in the Southeast Asia region. These mandates are implemented through research, training activities and information dissemination that are closely related to the Integrated Strategic Plan of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia and supports the SEAMEO 7 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.
SEAMEO BIOTROP has been trying to overcome the issues happening in the tropical biology field at the national and regional levels to deliver the Center’s vision. The acknowledgment of the Center’s role as “a leading Center in promoting and enriching the real values of tropical biology in Southeast Asia”, is the basic fuel of the Center to encourage the action program using the tagline “Save Biodiversity". The action programs are framed with the target of Tropical Biodiversity from Mountain to Ocean (MoTO), and derived into three flagship programs, namely: 1) Ecosystem Restoration and Conservation, 2) Sustainable Use of Biodiversity, Bioenergy, Biotechnology to Support Food Security, 3) Resilience in the face of Global Climate Change.
To accelerate all programs, SEAMEO BIOTROP launched a program called BIOTROP in 100 days (BID 100) to elevate the Center’s visibility and gather inputs from a wide-range of stakeholder. These initiatives provided an insight to the Center in order to formulate transformation programs called Ten Bs Programs, 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). These programs are conducted by upholding the new Core Values of SEAMEO BIOTROP called SCIENCE consisting of S as Sustainability, C as Competence, I as Integrity, E as Equality, N as Novelty, C as Connectivity and E as Educate.
In her remarks, the Director of SEAMEO Secretariat expressed her deepest appreciation to the excellent achievements of SEAMEO BIOTROP by implementing the Ten Bs initiative programs that benefited various stakeholders including schools, communities, government and private sectors in Southeast Asia and beyond. She further expressed that those initiative programs are also in support of SEAMEO’s Priority Areas in Education, Science and Culture, especially on Addressing Barriers to Inclusion, Resiliency in the Face of Emergencies, Promoting Technical and Vocational Education and Training, Revitalizing Teacher Education, and Adopting a 21st Century Curriculum. She also mentioned that these programs are strategic to promote cooperation in education, science and culture for a better quality of life in Southeast Asia.
The Secretary-General of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology of the Republic Indonesia expressed her hopes that those programs are able to increase the achievement and impact of the Center to support the ministry's achievements in accordance with the RENSTRA KEMENDIKBUD (Strategic plans of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology). She also mentioned her confidence that these programs of SEAMEO BIOTROP also support SEAMEO's Priority Areas in Education, Science, and Culture, particularly in Overcoming Barriers to Inclusion, Resilience in the Face of Emergencies, Promoting Technical and Vocational Education and Training, Revitalizing Teacher Education and Adopting 21st Century Curriculum. Furthermore, she stated that these strategic programs can be implemented to encourage multilateral cooperation in the field of education, in support of international efforts to reduce the global impact of Covid-19 pandemic on Education, according to the declaration stated by the President of the Republic of Indonesia in the Presidential Agenda of the G20 countries this year which was carried out in Indonesia.
In his remarks, the Director of SEAMEO BIOTROP stated that SEAMEO BIOTROP is ready to be the frontline to support the priority education agenda proclaimed at the presidential G20. SEAMEO BIOTROP will join to “Recover Together, Recover Stronger” to support “SAVE BIODIVERSITY FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS”, through its 54th anniversary programs to successfully support the G20 meeting output on education and environment issues.
Happy 54th Anniversary SEAMEO BIOTROP!
May all the excellent achievements continuously elevate the visibility of SEAMEO BIOTROP!
Keep up the optimism! Stay healthy and safe! (sis).
