Along with the subsiding situation of the Covid-19 pandemic, the offline activities within SEAMEO BIOTROP are starting to be up and running. Our 60^th Governing Board Meeting (GBM) was attended by the Learning Innovation and Information Specialist from SEAMEO Secretariat and the Governing Board Members from the Philippines and Thailand. In conjunction with the GBM event, we held the soft launch of the Agro-Eco-Edu Tourism program. The program is a form of tourism that combines landscapes, ecosystems, and agriculture-based education as an attraction or destination for tourists and visitors and is open to the general public. A visit from the President of the SEAMEO Council (SEAMEC) has put an emphasis on the essential roles of SEAMEO Centers in Indonesia toward the betterment of the communities in Southeast Asia.

In strengthening our collaboration activities, we also inked memoranda of understanding with Universitas Hasanuddin and Universitas Syiah Kuala.  The collaborative programs focus on the aspects of capacity building, professional exchange, research, and community services.  

Knowledge-sharing activities on the expertise of SEAMEO BIOTROP were carried out using a hybrid platform.  The regional workshop on “Potential Use of Essential Oils Therapy against Covid-19 Infection using Indigenous Knowledge” was participated by several experts on essential oils from Indonesia and abroad.  The training-workshop on “Tropical Plant Identification” was collaboratively held between the CRC-990-EFForTS and SEAMEO BIOTROP.  A Public Seminar on “The Importance of Urban Biodiversity Islands” as one method to disseminate information on the importance of biodiversity and biodiversity loss was held in conjunction with the training-workshop on “Tropical Plant Identification”. Workshop and Focus Group Discussions on Logic Design and Mockup Database of Biodiversity were held to develop a tropical biodiversity database accessible to communities at the national, regional, and international levels.