International Seminar on Biodiversity: Conservation of Biodiversity Through Increasing Economic Value

The Biology Study Program, FMIPA UNS Surakarta in collaboration with the Indonesian Biodiversity Society (MBI) held the UNS Annual Conference on Biodiversity. This activity is divided into two types, namely the international conference “International Conference on Biodiversity for Sustainable Industries” which was held Thursday-Friday (5-6/11/2015) and a national seminar which was held on Saturday (7/11/2015). The two conferences carried the theme “Biodiversity for a Sustainable Industry”.

The papers presented at the “International Conference on Biodiversity for Sustainable Industries” (ICBSI) will be published on www.elsevier.com and also for SCOPUS indexing. ICBSI was attended by around 100 participants while the national seminar was attended by more than 200 participants.

Chairman of the Committee Sugiyarto said the purpose of holding this conference was so that information on biodiversity studies could be downstreamed and applied in the industrial sector. “This year’s theme is matched with the spirit of the Minister (Menristekdikti-Ed.) for downstreaming,” explained Sugiyarto.

He also explained that this conference also leads to biodiversity conservation strategies through increasing economic value. The example that Sugiyarto describes is weeds. That if weeds have no economic value, then the grass will be ignored and will eventually become extinct. However, if the grass is known to contain its contents, then its sustainability is safe.

In addition, Sugiyarto hopes that after this conference can form an industrial framework that cares about the realm of biodiversity. “At least we can assure that the sustainability of the industry is highly dependent on biodiversity,” said Sugiyarto further.

Sutarno (vice chancellor for academics) who was appointed as one of the keynote speakers gave material related to the use of biodiversity for the survival of mankind. “40 percent of the world’s economic affairs are the source of biodiversity, and 80 percent, (humans—Ed.) which are very natural, still depend on biodiversity, for their lives,” explained Sutarno. He hopes that after this activity can make all parties aware of the existence of biodiversity. Besides Sutarno, the invited speakers were Jean Yong (Singapore), Matieu Mergans (France), Sutanto (UNS), Mitsunaga Tohru (Japan), Xu Jianlong (China), and others.[]

source : uns.ac.id