Batik is an Indonesian culture that has been recognized by UNESCO as the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity on 2 October 2009.  Besides being artwork, a carefully crafted batik design can be used to convey specific promotional messages.

In achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), SEAMEO BIOTROP launched the theme “Biodiversity Literacy: Save Biodiversity”.  Batik is one of the media that can be used to promote the SEAMEO BIOTROP tagline “Save Biodiversity from Mountain to Ocean”.

The 2022 SEAMEO BIOTROP Batik Design Competition was held to obtain batik designs that can depict the tagline.  The contestants submitted their batik designs from 21 April up to 23 May 2022.  Criteria of the accepted batik designs were: 1) Supporting the tagline “Save Biodiversity from Mountain to Ocean”; 2) Containing one or more typical colors of SEAMEO BIOTROP, i.e., green, orange and/or yellow; 3) Attaching the philosophy and ideas outlined as the batik design; 4) Designing the batik in an A4-sized page having high resolution; and 5) Posting the batik design in SEAMEO BIOTROP’s social media.

On the closing day of the design submission, the organizing committee received 67 batik designs from the contestants. The first stage of batik design selection was carried out on 31 May 2022 to obtain the 10 best batik designs.

The final judging stage was held on 15th June 2022.  The jury team consisted of Anang Ristanto, SE, MA, Plt. Head of Burau of Cooperation and Public Relation, Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia; Dr Zulhamsyah Imran, Director of SEAMEO BIOTROP; Ms. Darmawati SS, the Coordinator of Cooperation, Public Relations and Archives Services, the Secretariat of the Directorate General of Culture, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia; Ikrom Mustofa, Director of CV Piarea, and Mr. Kardono, SHut, MT, MMG, from the Directorate of Climate Change Adaptation, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry of the Republic of Indonesia.

The decisions of the final judging stage determined that the winners of the 2022 SEAMEO BIOTROP Batik Design were:

1) Christina Atika Yulina from Universitas Sanata Dharma as the winner;

2) Refanda Wahyu Hadiantoro and Hendri Setiawan from Universitas Sebelas Maret as the second winner;

3) Amaliya Lailatur Rizkiya from Universitas Negeri Surabaya as the third winner;

4)  Umi Laila Fitri from State Junior High School 14 Malang as the first runner up;

5) Octo Reinaldy from SEAMEO Qitep in Science as the second runner up;

Congratulations to the winners. Hopefully, the batik designs can elevate the visibility of SEAMEO BIOTROP in achieving the “Biodiversity Literacy: Save Biodiversity” goal by 2030. (hcn, sis).