Padang – Sumatran Biodiversity Research Group (KHS) Padang State University (UNP) held a Focus Group Discussion (FGD) in the context of preparing academic manuscripts and online activity plans on Wednesday, December 29, 2021.

Head of KHS UNP Rijal Satria said, the KHS Research Group was formed due to the concern of the Department of Biology, FMIPA UNP on threats to biodiversity on the island of Sumatra.

"Many things are a concern for biodiversity, in the form of forest destruction, changes in forest function conversion to agricultural land, climate change, environmental pollution, invasive species and the extinction of a species that affects other species in the food chain," said Rijal.

He regretted the extinction of endemic animals before further in-depth research needed to be taken.

"The saddest thing is the extinction of endemic animals in Sumatra without their whereabouts being known, and not being studied in depth," he said.

Rijal and other UNP Biology lecturers are sure that the KHS research group will be able to help save biodiversity on the island of Sumatra in the future.

"This research group will focus on studying the biodiversity on the island of Sumatra as a whole, including its genetic diversity," he explained.

This research group was founded on November 29, 2021, chaired by Rijal Satria, a lecturer and researcher at the Biology Department, FMIPA UNP. While the members are lecturers and researchers in the fields of Taxonomy, Ecology, Genetics and Molecular Biology, namely Yuni Ahda, Dwi Hilda Putri, Irma Leilani Eka Putri, Dezi Handayani, Fitra Arya Dwi Nugraha, and Afifatul Achyar.

The purpose of holding this FGD is in the context of preparing academic texts and activity plans as well as targets that will be carried out by the Sumatran Biodiversity Research Group next year.