Supervision of foreign researchers poor

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) conceded yesterday that supervision of foreign scientists doing research in Indonesia is still poor.

The poor supervision that has given rise to the misuse of research permits issued by the government is largely due to the lack of supervisors and ignorance of administrative procedures, said Apriliani Sugiarto, the institute's deputy chief.

LIPI, which directly answers to the President, is the government agency which issues permits for foreign scientists intending to do research in Indonesia.

Sugiarto said not all relevant officials and agencies know the procedures. Many, he said, feel they have the authority to issue the necessary permits.

"Local authorities and university people feel honored when a foreign researcher comes," Sugiarto told journalists. "They do not question the researcher's real intention."

Sugiarto's remarks came at a time when the institute is stepping up efforts to ensure the transfer of technology from foreign researchers to local scientists.

The transfer of know-how will be one of the issues in next month's second international meeting here on the Convention of Biodiversity, which was issued at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

LIPI has been trying to tighten control over foreign researchers ever since American anthropologist Donald E. Tyler sparked a controversy in 1993 when he claimed to have found the fossils of a prehistoric man in Central Java.

Tyler's claim was shot down by local villagers who could prove that he bought the fossils from them. He was in trouble after the authorities put him under close surveillance on suspicion of trying to smuggle the fossils to the U.S. However, he managed to sneak out of Indonesia before the authorities could take action.

Sugiarto maintained that foreign researchers wanting to study in Indonesia are required to carry out a standard procedure to make sure the scientists do what they have proposed.

Anugerah Nontji, who heads the Institute's Research and Development Center for Oceanology, said the lack of trained personnel to assist foreign researchers is also a weakness.

"We have all the preventive measures (to ensure equal benefit in research) like the involvement of our own researchers and we have the principle that all found specimens are under our government's ownership," Anugerah said.

"However, as we have insufficient personnel, our researcher may only be an assistant to a lecturer, whose knowledge is not yet compatible with the foreign professor."

S. Wirjoatmodjo, the head of the institute's biology department, said some foreign researchers have also posed as tourists.

"We are still informing all authorities, and also travel agencies, of research procedures and the rules against transporting organisms out of the country," he said, acknowledging that the detection of small items such as seeds would be difficult.

Aca Sugandhy, an assistant to the Minister of Environment which will organize the November event, said the grants for the studies under the Biodiversity Collections Project are meant to enhance knowledge of natural resources here.

Yesterday, four Indonesian biologists received grants from the Global Facilities Environment. The money was provided to implement the action plans on conservation, another result of the Earth Summit. (anr)