Universitas Papua (UNIPA) together with the WWF Indonesia Foundation signed a Memorandum of Understanding for cooperation in the next five years starting April 16, 2021. The signing was carried out in the Rectorate meeting room by UNIPA Rector, Dr. Ir. Meky Sagrim, SP., M.Si. and Executive Director of WWF Indonesia Foundation Dr. Dicky Simorangkir.

The cooperation includes the development of research activities, exchange of information, development of community resources, development of innovations in environmentally friendly natural resource management practices and publications, as well as facilitation of students in supporting Merdeka Belajar and Kampus Merdeka programs.

"I really welcome this collaboration because it is UNIPA's step in fulfilling the 8 Key Performance Indicators of higher education set by the Ministry of Education and Culture," said the Rector of UNIPA opening his remarks. He continued that students can support through LPPM (Institute for Research and Community Service - editorial).

The indicators mentioned include the quality of graduates, the number of students who get off-campus experience through project-based learning, internships, teaching, research, social projects and entrepreneurship.

The Executive Director of WWF Indonesia Foundation said, "Currently WWF is developing an organizational strategy and cooperation with universities, such as with UNIPA, is one of the important strategies." Collaboration in the future is very important and crucial because WWF is an organization that prioritizes science-based. The scope of cooperation is very comprehensive, not only research programs but is expected to be able to produce implementable innovations in the community."

He also said that in the future, research publications conducted with the support of universities need to be disseminated. The goal and orientation is to build a conservation-minded young generation. This collaboration is expected to contribute to sustainable development programs in the Land of Papua.

This signing is a starting point and in the near future UNIPA and WWF Indonesia Foundation will follow up with several Cooperation Agreements that are more focused on the implementation of activities.