Wallacea Institute to open in Makassar
P.C. Naommy, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
State-run Hasanudin University in Makassar is setting up the Wallacea Institute, which will facilitate the work of Indonesian scientists to conduct research focusing on conservation and the sustainable use of natural resources in the Wallacea region.
University president Radi A. Gany, said that most research on the Wallacea region was done by foreign scientists and the results were published abroad.
"This institute will become a place for Indonesian researchers to produce theses for the country and be a source of information for domestic and international scientists," said Radi at the Eijkman Biological Molecular Institute in Jakarta recently.
Radi said that the launch of the institute on Oct. 10 would be done simultaneously with the First International Wallacea Symposium in Makassar to coincide with several other events, such as the Wallacea Expedition.
The three-month Wallacea Expedition will explore the marine life of several isolated islands in the Wallacea region, such as Sabalana, Bonerate, Kabaena and Banggai.
The institute will cover inter- and multi-disciplinary research, including the study of biodiversity, anthropology, pharmacology, as well as medical and genetic characteristic of the human population of the area.
Hasanudin University has provided a six-story building on a 12,000 square meters of land in the university complex for the institute.
Sangkot Marzuki, the dean of the Eijkman-Biological Molecular- Institute, said that the cooperation between Hasanudin University and the Eijkman institute has been going on since 1996 through several research projects in human genetic characteristics and marine natural resources.
One of the research projects on genetics was done by Irawan, a researcher from Hasanudin University. His study concluded that people from the Makassar and Bugis ethnic groups were relatively slower when it comes to metabolizing to certain medicines.
"Ethnic groups each have certain genetic characteristics. This research will help us understand what kind of medicine works best for certain ethnic groups," said Irawan.
The Wallacea region is named after British scientist and explorer Alfred Russel Wallacea who explored and studied the characteristics of flora and fauna on the islands of Sulawesi, Southeast Nusa and Maluku about 150 years ago.
The Wallacea region has its own unique characteristics that cannot be found anywhere else in the world. The complex geological history of its formation has caused its biodiversity to vary from island to island.
The land fragments of the Wallacea region separated from mainland Asia an estimated 200 million years ago. The Wallacea lies on the boundary of the Indo-Malayan and Australasian biogeographical zones, which means that the region has species representative of those two zones, as well as its own unique biodiversity.
The Wallacea region, with its unique characteristics is home to 10,000 plant's species, 201 species of mammals, 697 species of birds, 188 reptile species, and 56 species of amphibians, as well as over 450 types of coral and 3,000 fish species.