To support the Merdeka Belajar Kampus Merdeka (MBKM) program by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology (MoECRT) of Indonesia, SEAMEO BIOTROP held the first series of BIOTROP to School Webinar in 2022 entitled "Implementation of the Save Biodiversity Program". This event was held online on Thursday, March 31, 2022.

"Collaboration between SEAMEO BIOTROP, universities, and schools is needed to create a learning ecosystem that supports the efforts and approaches to saving biodiversity," said Zulhamsyah Imran, Director of SEAMEO BIOTROP in his opening remarks in front of 79 participants from the public and private universities, vocational academies and school, senior high school, government agencies, and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) from all over Indonesia.

In his presentation, Slamet Widodo Sugiarto said that SEAMEO BIOTROP as a regional center in the field of tropical biology has facilitated the MBKM program in 2021. “This year, SEAMEO BIOTROP plans to re-open and expand the types of programs that can be followed by students to improve competence, knowledge, and experience in various fields in the context of tropical biology,” he explained.

There are three flagship programs of SEAMEO BIOTROP, namely restoration and conservation of unique and degraded ecosystems; wise and sustainable management and utilization of biodiversity, biotechnology, bioenergy, and food security; and strengthening resilience to global climate change.

Through these three flagship programs, SEAMEO BIOTROP formulates five main activities, namely 1) Save Biodiversity for Future Generations, 2) Biodiversity Ranking and Database from Mountain to Ocean, 3) Agro-eco-edu Tourism, 4) School of Ecology, Biodiversity, and Aquatic, and 5) Climate, Energy, Environment and Literacy on Biodiversity.

Furthermore, Slamet Widodo explained that the five main activities of SEAMEO BIOTROP will be formulated into the topic of the MBKM program that can be participated by students. “Our goal is to increase the capacity and competence of human resources within the scope of saving biodiversity; and produce modules, models, and prototypes related to activities to save biodiversity which are used as learning reference materials," he explained.

The nine main topics of the MBKM program offered by SEAMEO BIOTROP are climate change; conservation and aquaculture; introduction of invasive alien plants and their impact on ecosystems in Indonesia; precision agriculture, food security, and urban agriculture; land restoration and conservation of rare trees; modern biotechnology and tissue culture; manufacturing and agricultural, fishery, forestry derivative products; spatial and remote sensing technology; as well as learning media and digital literacy (Haritz CN, Denty A)