Twenty-one participants from Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Timor Leste completed SEAMEO BIOTROP’s Regional Training Course on Management of Weeds and Invasive Alien Plant Species (IAPS) held on 17-23 October 2011 at the Centre’s headquarter in Bogor, Indonesia.

Aimed at enhancing the knowledge and skills of the participants in managing weeds and IAPS, the training covered lecture-discussions and practical works on the following topics: (1) Concepts of  weeds and IAPS and their impact to natural vegetation; (2) Biology and ecology of weeds and IAPS; (3) Concept of plant classification, plant morphology and identification; (4) Biological control of weeds and IAPS; (5)  Herbicides: their mode of action and impacts to the environment; (6) Vegetation analysis; (7) Weed competition; (8) Molecular marker for biodiversity assessment; (10) Reproduction Engineering in Plant and (11) Quarantine regulations against IAPS. A one-day field trip was also conducted at Mount Gede Pangrango National Park in Bogor for the participants to practice vegetation analysis and collect data on the invasion of IAPS in  natural setting.

The training’s pre- and post-test results indicated siginificant increase in the knowledge and skills of the participants on the subject matter.  The training course also generated interest from some of the participants to seek further SEAMEO BIOTROP’s technical assistance in improving the weed science curriculum in their universities and conducting biological control experiments on prevalent weeds/IAPs in their respective work sites.

As a course requirement, the participants carried out group projects on three topics, namely: (1) Risk analysis of post entry Mikania micrantha and Eichhornia crassipes; (2) Weed competition; and (3) Vegetation analysis and Biological control of water hyacinth.  Project outputs were presented on a plenary towards the end of the training.

Resourse persons of the course were Dr. Soekisman Tjitrosoedirdjo from the Indonesian Weed Science Society; Dr. Soetikno Sastroutomo from CABI-Southeast Asia Office in Malaysia; Dr. Arifin Tasrif from the Indonesian Agriculture Quarantine; Prof. Dr. Sony Suharsono and  Dr. Miftahudin from Bogor Agricultural University; Dr. Harris Burhan from PT Rolimex Kimia Nusantara; and SEAMEO BIOTROP scientist and researchers, namely: Dr. Sri S. Tjitrosoedirdjo, Mr. Imam Mawardi, Mr. Setiabudi and Ms. Sri Widayanti. Dr. Sri S. Tjitrosoedirdjo served as the technical training coordinator.