The education and learning processes are very strategic mediums to become the center of a campaign about saving and protecting biodiversity. Education and learning about biodiversity have a very important role in providing experience and understanding as well as increasing competence for problem-solving to become the basis for making decisions related to saving biodiversity.

In that regard, SEAMEO BIOTROP organized a Regional Workshop on Development of Biodiversity Educational and Learning Ecosystem Models based on Science Literacy and Digital Literacy which aimed to obtain information on the development of environmental education and learning methods that have been implemented on a national, regional, and international levels and also to assess and explore the potency of big data and information technology to improve scientific literacy and digital literacy methods in the context of developing ecosystem model for biodiversity education and learning processes.

This event was officially opened by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia (MoECRT), represented by the Acting Director of Learning and Student Affairs, Directorate General of Higher Education, Research and Technology of the MoECRT,  Dr Sri Gunani Pratiwi.  In her opening remarks she shared her expectations that the regional workshop would initiate a way to  build comprehensive concept and action for the biodiversity education in the digital technology era.

The Director of SEAMEO BIOTROP, Dr Zulhamsyah Imran, shared high optimism in his welcome speech at this event. “This Regional Workshop is a vehicle for discussing environmental topics, exchanging information, and formulating a comprehensive method to implement an ideal ecosystem model for education and learning on biodiversity and to make formal education a center for biodiversity conservation campaigns.”, he stated.

Materials  presented at this event were: 1) Saving Biodiversity from Mountains to Oceans: Understand Nature, Tell A Story with Its Characters by Dr Zulhamsyah Imran (Director of SEAMEO BIOTROP); 2) Biodiversity and Environmental Education by Dr  Anang Setiawan Achmadi, MSc (Head of Centre for Ecology and Ethnobotany, BRIN); 3) Potency of Big Data and Cloud Computing for Science Literacy and Digital Literacy by Mr. Natanael (Google Cloud Solution Consultant, Google Indonesia); 4) Biodiversity Science: “Modern Biodiversity” by Dr Berry Juliandi (IPB University); 5) The Aquatic Biodiversity and Their Roles: “A Case Study on Aquaculture Technique” by Dr Nguyen Huu Yen Nhi (An Giang University, Vietnam); 6) Climate Change Literacy by Dr Perdinan (Climate Change Expert and also the Deputy Director for Administration of SEAMEO BIOTROP); 7) Environmental Interpretation: “How to Talk with Nature” by Dr Umaporn Muneenam (Assosciate Professor, Faculty of Environmental Management, Prince of Songkla University, Thailand); 8) Development of School Biodiversity Program by Mr. Slamet Widodo Sugiarto, MSc (Head of Environmental Policy and Governance Section, SEAMEO BIOTROP); 9) Development of Nature Library based on Landscape Beautification by Mr. Muhammad Isrok Nugroho, SP, MSi (Landscape Specialist, Cre-Ta Corp); and 10) Development Interactive Learning  Digital Story Telling by Wahyu Mulyono, MKom (Documentary Film Creator).

This event was held on 23 – 24 August 2022 in blended platform and  actively participated by more than 190 participants from government agencies, research institutions, universities, private companies and general public. (asa, hcn).