SEAMEO BIOTROP conducted its 58th Governing Board Meeting (GBM) virtually on 6-7 October 2020 from Aston Cirebon Hotel and Convention Center, Cirebon, Indonesia. This meeting was the first online GBM held by the Centre due to covid-19 pandemic. The activity was intended to evaluate the programme implementation and seek for the Board’s recommendations for the activities in the next fiscal year.

"SEAMEO BIOTROP in response to the pandemic has reallocated its resources to produce educational videos to support online trainings and classes for communities as well as teachers and students, in addition to its contributions to the research and sustainable use of natural resources,” said Dr Evi.

By holding the Governing Board meeting, Dr Evi expected the governing board members from the SEAMEO member countries could guide and work together with SEAMEO Centres to address problems arising due to the pandemic, which are related to human resource development, based on the experience of their respected countries.

Dr Irdika Mansur, BIOTROP Director, in his welcome remarks said that BIOTROP provides leadership in critical and strategic areas of tropical biology relevant to the region, and promotes regional networking and partnership in human resource development through research, training, information dissemination and other related activities.

For the last 12 years we have transformed BIOTROP from a pure research centre to become a community learning park, in which we transfer knowledge and technologies to community and schools in a wide range of subjects related to tropical biology. We use Indonesia to develop our model, and the successful model could be adopted by other member countries interested in the programme,” said Dr Irdika.

Dr Irdika also highlighted that the 58th Governing Board Meeting was his last GBM after 12 years serving the Centre. He thanked the Ministry of Education and Culture of Indonesia for the opportunity and continuous support, SEAMEO member countries and SEAMEO Secretariat for the collaboration and support, SEAMEO BIOTROP governing board members for the guidance, and SEAMEO Centres and Network for the collaboration and warm relationship.

Cambodian Board Member as the former Chairperson of the Centre’s Governing Board and the SEAMEO Secretariat Director also delivered their remarks during the Opening Ceremony.

For the meeting, BIOTROP submitted twelve working and eight information papers to the Board. Matters for acknowledgement, four working and one info papers were submitted to the Board for decision by referendum, while eight working and seven info papers were discussed during the virtual GBM.

A campus tour video and an accomplishment video were also presented during the opening ceremony to enhance the participants knowledge about the development and improvement as well as accomplishment made by the Centre this year.

Also attending the opening ceremony were the HE the Ambassadors of Cambodia, Lao PDR and Myanmar to Indonesia; Representative of the Embassy of Malaysia to Indonesia; the Major of Bogor City represented by the Head of Research and Development of Bogor City local government; SEAMEO BIOTROP Governing Board Members; SEAMEO Secretariat Director and Deputy Directors; Coordinator of the seven SEAMEO Centres in Indonesia; Director of SEAMEO RECFON, QITEP in Science, QITEP in Mathematics, and SEAMOLEC; and Deputy Director for Administration of QITEP in Language.