Bio-Prospecting Procedure of Sky-Hold Banana ( Musa troglodytarum L.): Protection of the Rights of Indigenous Community in Maluku Islands, Indonesia

This study described the protocol implemented in bio-prospecting activities related to samples preparation and transfer of sky-hold banana ( Musa troglodytarum L.) from Maluku islands Indonesia to the Netherlands, through collaboration among Faculty of Agriculture University, Olop, Hila Ambon Island, and Agrofair Company Barrendrecht, the Netherlands. The handling and transporting of biological materials including field and laboratory preparation, packaging, quarantine inspection, shipping and receiving of the materials were successfully completed. However, a number of constrains were identified and suggested to be improved. The protection of rights of indigenous community was ensured through the signing of a Material Transfer Agreement (MTA). This report/study has been the first attempt to propose the bioprospecting protocol in Maluku Province, Indonesia. Abbreviations:


Introduction
Bioprospecting is a systematic and organized search for useful products derived from bio-resources including plants, animals, microorganisms, that can be developed further for commercialization and overall benefits of the society [1]. Bioprospecting activities are continuing to increase in the word.
However, the escalation in samples collection activities, mainly by big companies in developed countries, is not correspond to the establishment and improvement of regulations especially in the countries, which have sovereignty over the biodiversity components, and as a consequence, benefit sharing, agreed upon in the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD), Rio de Janeiro, 1992, is mainly not implemented, ignoring the rights of the indigenous communities. One of the limitations in bio-prospecting is, there are no effective guidelines and conditions defined for recognizing and rewarding the contribution of indigenous people and other informal innovators who are responsible for nurturing, using and developing biodiversity [2]. Indeed, ASEAN workshop on the TRIPS agreement and traditional Medicine held in Jakarta, 2001 emphasized the importance of developing mechanism to ensure that knowledge and resources are not used without full, informed consent of their holders and finding ways to ensure equitable sharing of the benefits [3].
The richness of Maluku islands in banana genetic diversity is well documented [4][5][6][7]. This gene pool is a foundation where specific genotypes can be pooled out to be further developed in the area of agronomy, pharmaceutical food industry and others. Study to evaluate the potential of selected genotypes would be a first step to further development in the industries indicated above. The idea of bioprospecting on sky-hold banana is initiated by Agrofair Company, the Netherlands following a research visit to Ambon island by its Managing Director accompanying two scientists from Bio-based research, Wageningen University and Research, the Netherlands.
Recently, sky hold banana has received more research attention [8,9] due mainly to its presumably high content of β-carotene, and its role in traditional means of treating certain diseases. The species has also been covered as one of the target crops, on which research and lectures are focused, in a joint project between Indonesia and the Netherlands named "Setting up a blended learning program for sustainable inclusive agricultural value chain development in Indonesia". This study reports a technical procedure implemented in the above bio-prospecting activity in Maluku islands Indonesia.
It also attempts to discuss the protection of the rights of indigenous community on biodiversity, in addition to indicating aspects to be improved for further development.

Materials
The main plant materials used were sky-hold or fehi banana (Musa troglodytarum L.) of long finger obtained from 3 different locations in Ambon Island ( Figure 1). Machete was used to cut down the banana tree and to separate the hands from the bunch.
The short finger sky-old banana obtained from the market was also part of the materials, which was obtained from the traditional market since it was relatively less cultivated in comparison to the one with long finger. Equipment such as blender made of glass, papers, tapes, cartoon, etc., for puree preparation and packaging as well as researchers involved were presented in Figures 2a & 2b.
Autoclave and laminar flow hood were main laboratory equipment used.

Shipment
Several alternatives of materials shipment are available in Ambon city, including postal sending, DHL shipping company, and air-cargo. There are, however, challenges in using these shipment institutions, which were inability to guaranty the safety of fragile package, relatively long shipment period, and the need for certain additional documents to be prepared. The shipment is, therefore, done by means of personal cabin carry, with additional cost for one personal to carry the package to the address, Agrofair Company, Barrendrecht. Netherlands.

Arrival and Description of the Materials
The period between package preparation at the provider institution, and the arrival at the recipient institution is about 20 days. General condition of the bio-prospecting materials on the time of arrival is as follows (Van der Wall, 2017: personal communication).
A part of the puree needed to be discarded due to fermentation. The rest were kept in cold temperature for further analysis. The puree is lacking the attraction due to the color, it did not show a bright orange color needed by consumers, and that might have come from an unripe banana. The powder is also seemed to be unripe, lacking the strong taste and, therefore, consumer attraction. It is, however, very nice, free-flowing powder, certainly full of fiber, minerals, vitamins, which can potentially use as fortifying agent in smoothies and cereal products. The receiving company also indicate the need to find out further on some interesting production process such as conversion rate (from raw material to powder), cost of preparation and production method. Access to Genetic Resources) as well as indigenous communities' knowledge and practices related to conservation of biodiversity (Article 8: In-situ conservation) [11]. Costa Rica has been the model of countries in the world dealing with bioprospecting [12]. Since the first benefit sharing agreement made between Merk & Co. and improvement of local legislation on conservation [12,13]. The bio prospecting agreement and implementation indicated above has been criticized as another form of bio-piracy due to the facts that the benefits are not shared with indigenous community.
It is indicated [12], however, that the lands, in Costa Rica, where the bio-prospecting activities are conducted have no inhabitants, local farmers or indigenous community and therefore, the agreement is not involving such communities. In case of Sky-hold banana, in this study, the species has been cultivated by local indigenous farmers for generations and they have, therefore, conserve its genetic resources, and along the way have accumulated knowledge and practices in terms of suitable growing environment, cultural technology, utilizations technology as food, medicine etc. This local farmers or indigenous communities are therefore deserved to be covered in benefit agreement, should it be formulated. A study [9] find that β-carotene content in the fruit of sky-hold banana (Musa and Agriculture [10]. In case of Sky-hold banana, which may be included in the collection after the CBD agreement come into force, the sovereignty rights to access and benefit sharing, belong to the people where the materials are originally obtained. With the outbreak of diseases in the world recently; for example, that with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) [14], the role of quarantine office become highly important. It is, therefore, necessary that the quarantine inspection be part of the procedure in bio prospecting of biodiversity components in Maluku Islands, as we know from experience that some of bio-prospecting activities take place without involving proper procedures. The quick response in examining the materials and issuing of phytosanitary certificate by the quarantine office is necessary to speed up the transfer of biological materials including that of horticultural products, in this case, which are relatively easy to deteriorate. The delay in the arrival of transferred materials at the receiver institute indicates above is due to the fact that the shipping institutions have not been able to meet the demand of quick handling and shipping of the package with a guaranty of safety and less complicated procedures. With an improvement in this area of infrastructure in Maluku Province, bioprospecting activities in the Islands can be improved.
A number (about 10) of typical formulation of MTA has been described [15], each with the rights and obligations of parties involved. The MTA formulated in the present study is closely related to the one indicated as "the use permitted for the research purpose only" with additional rights and obligations. The materials transferred are intended for academic purposes which are strictly to conduct research or analysis on the banana materials. In case of further development into commercial purposes possibly attained, however, an obligation to negotiate separate agreement in which benefit sharing is taken into consideration, is necessary. The acknowledgement of the contributors in the academic context such as in the publications is also part of the MTA [15], which has been taken into account in the present publication. In addition, acknowledgement of the ownership (origin) of the biodiversity components (genetic materials) are also part of the implications of the agreement.

Conclusion
This study presents the first and successful bio-prospecting activity between the Faculty of Agriculture Pattimura University, Indonesia and Agrofair Company Barrendrecht the Netherlands.
The technical procedure implements for sky-hold banana comprises field and laboratory procedures, packaging, quarantine inspection, shipping, and signing of MTA document. Improvements need to be made in certain areas including agronomic aspect such as determining the right maturity stage prior to harvest and shipping infra-structures in Ambon city.