Wallacea Institute to open in Makassar

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.