Jakarta (ANTARA) - President Prabowo Subianto supported the development of a gene bank to preserve Indonesia's germplasm and produce superior agricultural seeds for both herbal and horticultural commodities.
Head of the National Economic Council (DEN), Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, made the statement after a limited meeting chaired by President Prabowo to discuss genome sequencing with Prof Sri Fatmawati, Director of the Indonesian Herbal and Horticultural Science and Technology Park, at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta, on Wednesday.
"The President views Indonesian agriculture as being very scientifically managed, and Fatmawati will become the director for research on superior agricultural seeds. The President strongly emphasizes that this must be done," Pandjaitan said.
He said that President Prabowo listened to Fatmawati's presentation on Indonesia's mega-biodiversity, necessitating a gene bank to safeguard the national germplasm.
President Prabowo, Luhut said, emphasized that the development of the gene bank must be fully carried out by the Indonesian people.
Meanwhile, Fatmawati highlighted that as a megadiverse country with diverse plant characteristics, Indonesia must have a gene bank to produce superior seeds.
As an initial step, research on superior seeds will be conducted on Sumatran frankincense plants.
"Because it has significant economic value, we are also obligated to protect the existing frankincense germplasm," she said.
She stated that research and expeditions are currently underway on Sumatran frankincense, given its significant economic value.
Indonesia, an archipelago of over 17,000 islands, is the second-largest mega-biodiversity country in the world after Brazil. Indonesia's landscape harbors biodiversity that includes 25 percent of the world's total species: 3,429 marine fish species, and 39 percent of reef fish species. Of the various fish species found in Indonesian waters, 120 species are endemic.
Meanwhile, Indonesia also contains 14 percent of the world's coral reefs, comprising 596 coral species.
Furthermore, 10 percent of the world's flower species grow on Indonesian soil, and Indonesia is also home to 12 percent of the world's mammal species, 16 percent of reptile species, and 17 percent of bird species.
Protection of Indonesia's biodiversity is regulated in Law Number 5 of 1994, which emphasizes the protection of the diversity of living things on land, in the oceans, and in aquatic ecosystems, including the ecological complexes within them, as well as the diversity of species and ecosystems.
Therefore, there are three levels of biodiversity protection: genetic diversity, species diversity, and ecosystem diversity.
