Innovation Report: What do you see as the main challenges and opportunities when it comes to conserving biodiversity, and how does the Sarawak Biodiversity Centre work to address these challenges?

Dr. Yeo Tiong Chia: In terms of how we balance our development and conservation of biodiversity, the Sarawak Government has what we call a land use policy. This policy designates certain portions of land for development and certain portions for conservation, as well as for agriculture and habitation. 

I think Sarawak is in a good place because we’re at a stage where everything is changing and dynamic. A lot of things are still unknown, especially in the biodiversity of Sarawak. With new species, you potentially have new compounds, and with new compounds, you potentially have bioactivity. If this bioactivity is focused on the right application, it can really contribute to a bio-based economy. That’s essentially what our work is all about.

Innovation Report: Can you share examples of your collaborative projects with indigenous communities associated with traditional knowledge?

Dr. Yeo Tiong Chia: We have three examples, although there are many we can share. We work on projects relating to how indigenous communities have traditionally utilised plants that they find in the jungle.. These plants and knowledge associated to them are very important as part of a bio-based economy or for applications in healthcare and personal care.

We see this as an opportunity for local communities to collect resources that produce essential oils. For example, one essential oil is trademarked and named LitSara and is extracted from  by a species of plant called Litsea cubeba. The indigenous community has a significant involvement in  the development of this oil. We share with them how the oil can be distilled and carry out capacity building so they can operate small distillation units to extract the oil from the plant.

They can then sell the essential oils to SBC, who would do the R&D and quality control, and develop them into products for consumer use. These can be exported as part of a social cause program with the indigenous community. This was our first access and benefit-sharing agreement with the community, established in 2019.

We’ve since developed another essential oil called AdenoSara from another plant species. The community collects the plants and extracts the oil, then sells it to SBC. We ensure quality control and validate the oil to meet industry demands. The community benefits from selling the oil and receives royalties from the products we sell.

Innovation Report: Can you tell us more about how the Sarawak Biodiversity Centre is working to scale up research and development partnerships?

Dr. Yeo Tiong Chia: When SBC first started, we identified important areas to set up in order to be useful in the research and development value chain. We recognized the need for documentation, especially on indigenous knowledge and the biological resources linked with it. 

We went further to build a library, which is a collection of extracts containing compounds and bioactive compounds. This library is organized and annotated, allowing us to pull out information from the database on particular components of biodiversity. We offer access to this library to companies and organizations who want to do research and know what they’re looking for.

We’ve also built our own capabilities by establishing a series of laboratories geared towards analyzing natural products. This gives us the ability to carry out bio-prospecting work and identify what’s truly valuable in the biodiversity that we can offer for collaboration with other companies and organizations.

Innovation Report: What opportunities do you see for bioentrepreneurship and collaborations with small businesses and entrepreneurs in Malaysia?

Dr. Yeo Tiong Chia: Traditionally, our SMEs and businesses here focus on trading. What SBC and the Sarawak Government are doing is creating an ecosystem particularly focused on innovation, encouraging SMEs and new startups to look at innovation as part of their business plan.

It will take time for this to be established in an area like Sarawak. However, we think that because of the availability of our resources and the many unknowns in the rainforest, there are opportunities for developing innovations and breakthroughs that can be applied throughout the world. For instance, some of the best antibiotics have been discovered from natural product resources, some even from Borneo itself.

This immense potential is very attractive for companies with resources, know-how, and equipment to come here and do research work with us. One advantage we offer to collaborating companies is that the government of Sarawak has invested heavily in building labs and purchasing equipment for research work. International companies see this as an opportunity to work with local partners rather than just coming to Sarawak to take resources back to their own laboratories elsewhere.

Innovation Report: What do you believe are the next steps required to fully realize the potential of biodiversity as a driver for sustainable development in Sarawak and Malaysia?

Dr. Yeo Tiong Chia: I think there are a few things in terms of policy that the government can potentially embrace. We need to put in place policies that are very nature-positive. Another good policy would be along the lines of what we call bio-preferred programs, which encourage organizations and the private sector to look at locally bio-manufactured products.

I think there’s a way to support this as a circular economy, giving more emphasis to the value of biodiversity and its conservation. With these changes, I think we can support biodiversity conservation as well as R&D in the long term.

The partnership is really about three components: the government, the private sector, and the community. If you have these three working together to embrace biodiversity as part of a nature-positive program, I think it’s a good mix. You’ll be successful, and I look forward to the day when all this is going to be self-sustaining, sustainable, and benefiting everyone in the long term.

Innovation Report: What impact would you like to see from the work done at the Sarawak Biodiversity Centre in the next 10 to 20 years?

Dr. Yeo Tiong Chia: I think we are on a very good path towards achieving what we want at the end of the day. For the past 20 years or so, SBC has existed to create the platform and baseline for us to launch from. Within these 25 years, we feel that we are achieving something, and we are on the verge of making breakthroughs.

These breakthroughs could be on the level of new drugs or new bio-industry applications. You can imagine the kind of economy that those could bring to a state like Sarawak, to a country like Malaysia.

In terms of what we can share with the world, I think our work with the communities and how we position it – that by working with them, we can protect biodiversity – is very noble. It can be captured by one particular phrase, which was the title of an article on Forbes online written by John Converse: “There’s more money in the rainforest than in its deforestation.” To me, this just explains everything we are doing.

We’re putting a lot of effort into green technology and trying to mitigate climate change. We are in a primary area of rainforest, with over 60% of our land still covered by trees. Why are we focusing on green economy? I believe it all comes down to having a very clear, noble goal to be able to help the planet in such a way.