Sam Ratulangi University, Manado (UNSRAT) is situated in 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 islands, can be reached. This area is known worldwide for its incredible 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 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 world wide 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 core of this partnership within the 3 institutes is grading up the study program Indo-Pacific Coral Reef Biodiversity and Conservation recently established at the Sam Ratulangi University, Manado, as a subprogram of the Indonesian Master program Aquatic Sciences (http://pasca.unsrat.ac.id/s2/ipa/?page_id=140) and to prepare it to be part of a Double Degree Master program with university of Bonn and in a next step with university of Bremen. This will consolidate in a long term the already existing research cooperations, but will also broaden the research aspects of future collaborations.
