Indonesia is undergoing mass deforestation, driving climate change and rapid species loss. Plants are essential sources of not only food and oxygen, but also crop protection agents, dietary/cosmetics ingredients, preservatives, and, most importantly, medicines. This escalating, irreversible loss of bioactive compounds threatens human health and wellbeing. It is most urgent to raise awareness about their value and protect the diverse organisms that make them. Biodiversity destruction is also a key factor behind zoonoses such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Goals:
- Via knowledge transfer, help position Indonesia as world pioneer in collecting, cataloguing, preserving and studying the biochemical diversity of its flora for human health.
- Help strengthen links between Indonesian policymakers, conservationists and scientists with the aim of establishing long-term collaborations which may lead to improved conservation policy.
Plan: Run workshop to enable Indonesian scientists to use RApid Metabolome Extraction and Storage (RAMES) technology for sustainable, field-deployable, efficient, ethical collection and preservation of plant biochemical diversity. Create comprehensive library of natural products from endangered Indonesian plants and use it as foundation for new research center promoting natural product R&D for human health. Provide opportunities for close interaction, discussion and collaboration among Indonesian policymakers, conservationists and scientists.
