Lombok’s Ekas Bay Chosen as Site for International Tropical Seaweed Research Center
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- Indonesia will develop the ITSRC in Ekas Bay, East Lombok, to strengthen seaweed research and accelerate coastal economic transformation.
- The government says Indonesia leads tropical seaweed production at about 75% of global output, but needs stronger R&D and downstreaming to capture more value.
- The project includes international partnerships with UC Berkeley and China’s BGI, plus planned facilities to support long-term research in a “living laboratory” setting.
Indonesia is building a new global seaweed research hub, the International Tropical Seaweed Research Center (ITSRC), in the Ekas Bay area of East Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara.
Deputy Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology Stella Christie has stressed that strengthening Indonesia’s seaweed research is key to the national strategy and to transforming the coastal economy. “Our major focus over the past few months has been to make Indonesia the world’s seaweed hub, and that has to start now. That is why we are building an internationally standardized research center with truly global networks,” she said in a statement issued in Jakarta on Saturday.
Stella said Ekas Bay was selected because it has long been central to the lives of coastal communities, serving both aquaculture and fishing activities.
The research center is expected to help improve catches and upgrade farming quality by developing superior seaweed seedlings backed by research.
Stella also underscored Indonesia’s position as the world’s largest producer of tropical seaweed, accounting for about 75% of the global market.
She noted that the global seaweed economy is valued at around US$12 billion per year and is projected to keep growing.
Even so, she said Indonesia’s dominance in global production has not been fully matched by stronger research capacity and downstream processing at home.
She emphasized that Indonesia should not remain merely a supplier of raw materials, but should become a center of innovation and value creation. For that reason, ITSRC is being designed as a node for national and international collaboration.
“We are working with the University of California, Berkeley, and Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI) from China. BGI has committed to support funding of Rp 3 billion for the first 2 years, including equipment and researchers. The ministry has also allocated Rp 1.5 billion for the initial phase,” Stella said.
A number of facilities are planned for the center, including a research building, dormitories for international researchers, a pharmacy, and other supporting infrastructure.
From an ecological perspective, Ekas Bay features a relatively sheltered tropical bay system, with currents and water circulation considered favorable. These conditions make it well-suited as a living laboratory for research on productivity, climate resilience and tropical-scale biomass development.
Beyond Kappaphycus—widely used as a raw material for carrageenan—the area is also considered promising for developing other seaweed types such as Caulerpa, Ulva and Halymenia.
Indonesianpost.com | Antara
