Date: January 26(Mon.) 12:30～14:00
Venue: Room No. 330, the 3rd floor, Inamori Memorial Hall, CSEAS, Kyoto University
The site is located in a combined area of natural forest and plantation forest in Riau Province, Sumatra Indonesia. The area has been allocated for Biosphere Reserve, a forest protection management pioneered by UNESCO, that covers 780,000 hectares of forest. Presently this site is under the co-supervision of Sinar Mas Forestry and the Ministry of Forestry. In this site, Initiatives 3 plans to expand research collaboration with several institutions such as the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), the Ministry of Forestry (Dept of Forestry), the University of Riau, and Sinar Mas Forestry.
An MOU should be drafted and completed/signed before starting this research collaboration. Some samples of MOU formats between Kyoto University/RISH with other parties were discussed in order to design the right format for the Riau Biosphere Reserve Project MOU. It was proposed that G-COE leader, Prof. Sugihara will represent Kyoto University in signing the MOU and Dr. Endang Sukara will represent LIPI in signing the MOU. Other representatives from other institutions will be decided upon later. The meeting agreed to finalize the making of this MOU and its signing as soon as possible and will discuss more on the matter during the workshop on February 20th, in Riau, Indonesia.
② Future research activities
A workshop organized by University of Riau will be held on February 20th, 2009 in Pekanbaru, Riau. Members of Initiatives 3 have agreed to present a research proposal during this workshop. The appointed member of Initiatives will present a research proposal to be implemented in Riau site with the topics listed below. The dateline for the Kyoto University research proposal is agreed to be on February 10th. Meanwhile, the dateline to submit to Riau University as the organizing university is on February 13th, 2009.
Research Proposals
1. Collaborative natural resource management between local community and timber plantation (Equitable partnerships between corporate and small-holder partners in timber plantation industry)
Culture
Empowerment of local people
Eco-tourism
Illegal logging and encroachment
2. Dynamic evaluation of forest biomass in plantation forest using ground-based and satellite remote sensing data
3. Water/carbon cycle and soil moisture control, hydrogical mapping, weather observation in the peat swamp
4. Case study on biofuel production: from pulp to bioethanol
5. Biodiversity observation of the Riau biosphere reserve
Aquatic and Terrestrial (Conservation status)
Valuation and development
6. Peat land Management and conservation
Fire peat land
Hydrology management
Restoration
Peat land physical and nutrition improvement
This workshop will mainly be attended by University members (Kyoto University and Riau University), LIPI and Sinar Mas and other limited parties.
③ International Symposium on March 9th, 10th, and 11th, 2009.
Initiatives 3 will organize an International Symposium on the environmental and energy issues. The challenges facing bio-energy include the agroforestry settlement of sustainable humanosphere, the development of the next generation bio-energy crops, etc. A number of experts from abroad and Japan will be invited to give presentations. Currently Dr. Andre Faaij from the University of Utrecht and Dr. Kinya Sakanishi from the Biomass Technology Research Center (AIST), Japan, have been confirmed to give presentations at this workshop. Other speakers and commentators from Initiative 3 Group members have also been allocated places in each section.
Regarding the Poster presentation, each presenter will give a 2-3 minutes oral presentation to explain the poster.
(Retno Kusumaningtyas)