Sam Ratulangi University (UNSRAT) is situated in Manado, North Sulawesi, a large city with a high population growth. However, within less than one hour boat’s drive, one of the most famous Indonesian National Marine Parks, Bunaken Island and adjacent islets, can be reached. This island area is known worldwide for its incredible marine biodiversity. Thus, teaching and explaining biodiversity, as well as showing impacts of factors from local mismanagement up to climate induced threats can be performed with high efficiency within a very short geographic distance. This renders UNSRAT an ideal location for teaching these issues to students from all around the world, but especially from the countries belonging to the Coral Triangle.
The Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig (ZFMK, Bonn) is a worldwide leading institute for biodiversity research, whereas the Zentrum für Marine Tropenökologie (ZMT, Bremen) is a leading institute of ecosystem research and functioning in tropical marine habitats.
The aim of this bilateral partnership including three institutes is grading up the study “program Indo-Pacific Coral Reef Biodiversity and Conservation” at Sam Ratulangi University as a subunit of the Indonesian Master Program “Aquatic Sciences” and to implement it into a Double Degree Master Program with the University of Bonn and in a next step with the University of Bremen. This will consolidate in a long term the already existing research co-operations, but will also broaden the research options of future collaborations.
