Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysian (UTHM) has made international efforts to become an outstanding member in the field of biodiversity and conservation. A solid corporate partnership between external agencies, foreign universities and UTHM were formed as a medium to show its active involvement. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Faculty of Biology, Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) and Faculty of Applied Sciences and Technology, UTHM was endorsed and signed in 2016 and one of its main aim is to co-organise international seminars. In 2016, a Joint Seminar on Biodiversity and Conservation (JSBC 2016) was successfully co-organised and followed by the 5th International Conference on Biological Science 2017 (ICBS 2017) in 2017. Jogjakarta, Indonesia was chosen to be the host for both seminars. ICB 2018 sets its goal following the success of International Conference of Biodiversity organised in 2015 with UTHM as the main organiser and host. The timeline below summarizes the corporate relationship between UTHM and UGM.
Centre of Research for Sustainable Uses of Natural Resources (CoR-SUNR), an interdisciplinary research centre under Faculty of Applied Science and Technology (FAST), UTHM was established for the sole reason of cultivating better understanding and awareness on the values and importance of biodiversity in our community. In the effort to ensure that biodiversity is properly documented and maintained sustainably, a lot of initiatives are brought to bear.
ICB 2018’s main aim is to gather professionals and researchers from the field of biodiversity and conservation all over Malaysia to discuss the potential, threats and challenges of the global biodiversity. Our top priority is to ensure all participants are able to understand and map the current biodiversity scenario in Malaysia and all around the world. With the ever-increasing importance of conservation, ICB 2018 emphasizes on understanding the potentials and threats being faced by biodiversity and its thinning resources. Here, we prioritise on sharing knowledge from experienced professionals and researchers who have been active in this field. Finally, it is our great honour to utilise this platform to announce the establishment of CoR-SUNR on both national and international level.