The International Cooperative Biodiversity Group Program, a multi-agency program led by the National Institutes of Health, and supported by the United States Department of Agriculture, Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation has recently given a five year $4 million grant to the University of California, Davis scientists to study biodiversity on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, a southeast Asian island threatened by the loss of biodiversity in its tropical forests. "The alarming rate at which biodiversity is being lost in many tropical regions has resulted in an urgent need for such efforts," said Prof Daniel Potter, the lead investigator and director of the University of California Davis Center for Plant Diversity.  An international team of collaborators will use the results in making significant contributions to the biodiversity issues including:

• development of knowledge about the patterns of biodiversity in southeast Asia;
• identification and isolation of natural products with potential value for treating globally important diseases and addressing human energy needs;
• development of effective biodiversity conservation strategies and proactive outreach and education programs to promote those strategies; and
• establishment of models for effective and equitable international collaborative partnerships, and ethical and sustainable international sharing of biogenetic resources.

For details, see press release at: http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=8857.