Indonesia is ranked at the 8th position of countries with mega-biodiversity as released by the Conservation International. The country hosts over 5,000 endemic plant species and more than 25,000 flowering plants that are distributed in its vast archipelago. This is an invaluable asset for the global population, considering that plants are the major source for nutrition and plant based materials are a promising environmentally friendly alternative for the future. However, we are not yet harnessing the full potential of this massive biodiversity of plants in Indonesia. One of the major causes is the poor documentation that, according to the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, 50% of Indonesia biodiversity remains unrecorded. Furthermore, this may lead to a bigger loss, which is the extinction of valuable species without ever being recorded.

Out of the 5,000 endemic plant species in Indonesia, the archeologists suggest that the speciation of bananas occurred in Papua New Guinea and east Indonesia following further differentiation and distribution to South East Asia and then worldwide. As the consequence, Indonesia bears the highest diversity of banana with more than 1,000 species and/or cultivars. Banana is a crucial component of food and economic sectors in many areas in Indonesia.

Specifically in Bali, banana plays an important role in cultural activities as well as in religious ceremonies. The high demand of bananas in Indonesia is not yet supported by a reliable production system, leading to the incapability of the country to compete with other banana producing countries to export and also to meet some of the domestic demands.

Hence, Bali International Research Center for Banana (BIRCB) is established to facilitate various banana research and innovations in Indonesia and worldwide. This research center is an initiative between Institut Teknologi Bandung and Udayana University in order to enhance, strengthten research collaboration and innovation. The location of Bali, in the middle of Indonesia, is appropriately strategic to connect researchers and all banana research participants from the country. In addition to the high diversity of Bali bananas, the globally-known beauty of the Island is expected to attract more international scientists to participate and collaborate with this research center. BIRCB focusses on the establishment of banana biogeography and biodiversity database that supports diverse banana research and innovation to bring significant impact in economy, social, and cultural sectors as well as to increase human resources capacities.