Universitas Hasanuddin (Unhas) through Graduate School cooperated with The Center of Excellence for Marine Resilience and Sustainable Development (MARSAVE) and GENIALG conducting a webinar entitled “Tropical Phyconomy Coalition Development.” The webinar was conducted online using the Zoom Meeting application at 14.00 WITA on Wednesday (07/07).
Rector of Unhas, Prof. Dr. Dwia Aries Tina Pulubuhu, MA., officially started the event with opening remarks. Professor Dwia expressed her appreciation for the Dean of Graduate School and the partners who cooperatively established the event. She conveyed that the webinar will bring benefits to the forum for scientific development through discussion and sharing of research experiences.
Furthermore, Prof. Dwia added that Unhas actively conducts various research, especially on seaweed cultivation.
“The pandemic will pass soon, we hope; therefore, international researchers can visit our campus to meet and discuss in person. Today’s topic is so interesting to be discussed considering that seaweed cultivation in the sub-tropical area and tropical waters have certain challenges differed from other areas,” explained Prof. Dwia
On the same occasion, Dean of Graduate School, Prof. Dr. Ir. Jamaluddin Jompa, Ph.D., presented his topic entitled “Opportunities for Strengthening the Indonesia Seaweed Penta-Helix Through Collaboration.”
Professor Jamal explained that Indonesia has an excellent opportunity to develop a seaweed industry that can have global competitiveness in quantity and quality. With this potential cultivation and high diversity, Indonesia has the opportunity to produce various types of seaweed products for food, cosmetics, medicines, and animal food.
Seaweed can support food security and could even contribute to world food. The need for seaweed as an alternative protein source is very potential to be developed. Mass seaweed cultivation can also be able to support climate change mitigation and the achievement of the SDGs.
“To achieve the goals of becoming the world’s largest producer of processed seaweed commodities, Indonesia needs to adapt an innovative Penta-helix collaboration model. The government, academia, industry, community, and media with their roles and contributions are crucial in creating the proper environment,” explained Professor Jamal.
Dr. Loretta Robinson, a seaweed expert from the USA, also shared her views on “Developing Cultivation Systems and Best Management Practices for Caribbean Carrageenophytes in USA Waters.”
She said small Caribbean and island nations are losing resources due to climate change, nutrient pollution, ocean acidification, seagrass bed habitat loss, fishing pressures, and lost tourism revenues due to Covid-19.
Loretta said the development and growth of well-managed tropical seaweed farming in the region could help address the problem while providing a new source of seaweed biomass and biofuels in the future.
“We are currently exploring opportunities to expand seaweed farming in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico in collaboration with 15 institutions in various research sites, such as Puerto Rico, Florida, and Belize. Together we made a prototype of a cultivation system that allows cultivation activities to be placed in offshore areas to carry out economic analysis,” said Loretta.
The team will adjust the findings from this effort to suit the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico conditions. They may adapt the results for other locations with similar environmental threats or the need for alternative marine livelihoods.
This webinar is divided into four sessions. The first session presented 11 speakers. The participants who joined enthusiastically gave suggestions and views on seaweed cultivation as potential commodities to improve people’s welfare.
The webinar is a two-day event which means it will end on Thursday (8/7). For the first day, the activity went smoothly until 17.30 WITA.
Kumara Tungga Dewa, S.S.
Editor: Ishaq Rahman, AMIPR
