28.2.17 | The Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research has been, for the past one and half years, spearheading a German-Indonesian dialogue process, bringing together marine, coastal and agricultural scientists as well as representatives of ministries and selected civil society organizations from Indonesia and Germany.

It is the aim of this process to jointly identify and comprehensively reflect on those thematic areas located in the land-sea boundary zone that are of increasingly pressing global relevance, while researching them in the context of island Southeast Asia offers a particularly solid empirical perspective into the future.

Specifically, in January 2016, fifty scientists from Indonesia and Germany discussed in a first bilateral workshop on Bali potentially relevant research topics in the field of coastal and ma- rine sciences.
On the basis of these discussions, German scientists met at ZMT in December 2016, and together with representatives of BMBF, to hone the identified priorities for bilateral research collaboration.

Core themes discussed comprised the following:

1. Sustainable Resource Use
2. Marine Pollution
3. Global Change
4. Marine Biodiversity and Ecosystem Function
5. Governance, Innovations, Risks and Planning

These thematic fields were then further concretised with Indonesian partners in a bilateral workshop with 47 participants from Germany and Indonesia in Jakarta in February 2017. The main objective of the workshop was to further elaborate on key challenges and research gaps as well as recommendations for future joint activities.

These thematic fields were then further concretised with Indonesian partners in a bilateral workshop with 47 participants from Germany and Indonesia in Jakarta in February 2017. The main objective of the workshop was to further elaborate on key challenges and research gaps as well as recommendations for future joint activities.