Theresia Sufa, The Jakarta Post, Bogor
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is slated to open the new building of the Herbarium Bogoriensi center in the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) complex in Cibinong, Bogor, on Wednesday.
The 4,000 square meter building holds over two million species of florae, all dried or preserved in alcohol (see photo). Some specimens are 190 years old, having been preserved right after the establishment of Bogor Botanical Park in 1817.
The construction of the building and research facilities was funded by the Japanese government, channeled through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
The herbarium center's old building in Jl. Juanda, downtown Bogor, was no longer suitable for the whole collection, according to head of LIPI's biology research center, Dedi Darnaedi.
"Moreover, LIPI intends to develop its Cibinong complex as a center of biodiversity studies," he said Tuesday.
Besides the herbarium, LIPI already has a zoology center and its Ecopark in the complex.
The herbarium's opening ceremony will be in conjunction with the 300th anniversary of the birth of Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus, the father of modern taxonomy.
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