News published: 1 October 2025

Last August 25, the Southeast Asia Botanic Gardens (SEABG) Network hosted a technical talk entitled “Botanic Gardens of Indonesia”, featuring two presenters from the country’s extensive national botanic gardens network.

The presentation by Dr. Asep Riswoko of the National Research and Innovation Agency (Badan Riset dan Inovasi Nasional, or BRIN) was entitled “From Local Roots to Global Networks: Advancing Indonesia’s Local Botanic Gardens”. In it, he provided an overview of the history, mission, distribution, and activities of gardens across the archipelago and outlined how they could contribute to advancing plant conservation at both the national and global level.

Afterwards, Alawiyah took participants on a focused tour through one garden in particular – the ITERA Botanic Garden, which has recently become a BGCI member and GBGF award recipient. Her presentation offered a window into the garden’s evolution from community food crop and horticulture plantations in 2018 to full-fledged botanic garden in 2025, now operating various zones for tourism, education, research, conservation, and environmental services.

The talk was attended by 30+ members of the SEABG Network from more than five countries and served as a way for the region’s community to interact, share knowledge, and celebrate progress.