CONTRIBUTION TO SCIENCE

ITM’s biodiversity conservation activities mostly involve scientific activities in the biological domain and its branches. The main activities – such as exploration, field study, and plant collection – apply scientific principles and research methods that have been developed in the research sector.

Biodiversity inventory – of trees, bush shrubs, herbs, epiphytes, lianas, etc. – that was carried out in the natural vegetation area before the mining activities started will provide an overview of the condition of the forest that is useful for the reclamation process. However, the data also provides important information for forestry studies.

Data that was obtained from this study is important for the development of plant conservation in Indonesia. Moreover, the information about, for example, carbon stocks, special studies on orchids and ethnobotany studies have the potential to be further developed and will ultimately provide benefits to the community and the education sector.

The propagation and seedling stages also have important applicative scholarship aspect. At these stages, the team's capability in managing plants is enhanced through training and knowledge transfer. The application of the tissue culture technology is also an option at these stages. The IMM’s team, accompanied by experts from Purwodadi Botanical Garden and LIPI, has established a tissue culture laboratory at the company's nursery facilities. IMM has also bred some orchid species and has been doing a study on wood species.

In addition, research on Molecular Genetic in field studies was conducted to find the best environmental recovery.

On the other hand, the key species from PT BEK’s conserved forest has also become collections of the Purwodadi Botanical Garden. As many as 146 species or 2% of the total collections have been planted in the botanical garden. This is a contribution to the Indonesian scientific sector, especially in terms of biodiversity that can be learned or merely acknowledged by the people who live far from the natural habitat of these species.

Furthermore, this program will provide scientific information regarding biodiversity of plants, ecological characters, ethnobotany as well as plant collections that can be used as reference to set guidelines for "local biodiversity-based mining rehabilitation", community empowerment based on the use of potential native plants, plants preservation through ex situ conservation, and the strengthening of research on national biodiversity research.