Indonesia is one of the nations with the biggest biodiversity in the world. Unfortunately, those potential shave yet to be utilized optimally.
“One of the factors is the lack of biodiversity database in Indonesia,” said plant systematics expert of Faculty of Biology UGM, Abdul Razaq Chasani, S.Si., M.Sc., during Training on Bioinformatics at the campus on Monday (22/5).
The bioinformatics training is expected to develop the bioinformatics skill for encouraging research on biodiversity in Indonesia. Moreover, it is purposedly held to build cooperation network for various programs in revealing and preserving biodiversity in Indonesia.
Abdul Razaq said the lack of biodiversity database has made Indonesia vulnerable to the thievery of biodiversity. Therefore, the arrangement of the database is required and it will become the first step in the efforts to save biodiversity in Indonesia.
According to Abdul, it needs the involvement of many parties in creating such database, including the society, researcher, and other related parties.
“This database can be utilized to monitor the dynamics of biodiversity whether it decreases or increases. Therefore, the analysis policy and the development will refer to this database,” he added.
Dean of Faculty of Biology UGM, Dr. Budi Setiadi Daryono, M.Agr.Sc., said a similar statement. Indonesia needs biodiversity database from genomic level until ecosystem.
“Actually, we have data of biodiversity in Indonesia but it is not integrated and is only used for a short period,” said Budi.
Budi said all this while, biodiversity in Indonesia is still scattered or has yet to be integrated into the national database. Therefore, it is essential to arrange an integrated database which is real time, website-based, and accessible by the researchers.
“The development of national biodiversity database is essential to protect the biodiversity in Indonesia,” he emphasized.
The training which was held from May 22 until 23, 2017, also presented Associate Professor from The College of Idaho, USA, Luke Daniels, Ph.D. and a genetics expert from Faculty of Biology UGM, Tuty Arisuryanti, Ph.D. as speakers.