11 July 2024
Threesna Sharfina
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Medan, (July 11, 2024) — Universitas Sumatera Utara (USU) is deepening its environmental commitment by putting stronger safeguards in place to protect native ecosystems on and around its campuses. Through strategic conservation efforts, research, and day-to-day campus practices, the university is working to reduce the risks posed by invasive alien species while preserving the rich biodiversity that characterises its landscape. These efforts form a key pillar of USU’s Green Campus Initiative, which integrates environmental priorities into campus planning, management, and community outreach.
USU’s environmental policies explicitly prioritise the protection and restoration of native ecosystems, with particular emphasis on the managed conservation zones at Bekala Campus, the Arboretum, and Taman Kehati (Biodiversity Park). By focusing on these areas as core ecological assets, the university ensures that conservation is not an afterthought but a guiding principle for how land is used and developed. Native species reforestation, habitat zoning, and research-led guidance from the Faculty of Forestry collectively operate as a de facto framework for controlling the risk and impact of invasive alien species on campus. While not yet formalised as a stand-alone invasive-species policy, these measures already function as practical controls and provide a strong foundation for more specific provisions in the future.
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At Bekala Campus, this approach is most visible. Spread across hundreds of hectares, Bekala functions both as an academic laboratory and as a biodiversity conservation site. Within this landscape, USU manages the Arboretum, Taman Kehati, and a forest nursery as protected zones where native flora and fauna can thrive undisturbed. Reforestation with native species is actively pursued in these areas, strengthening local ecosystems and providing habitat for diverse wildlife. These green zones also serve as ecological buffers against the establishment and spread of invasive alien species, which tend to colonise disturbed or degraded sites. By maintaining healthy, native‑dominated ecosystems, the university reduces ecological space for invasive species and reinforces the natural resilience of its landscapes.
The Bekala Arboretum hosts a wide collection of native and endemic plant species used for education, research, and ecological restoration. The forest nursery produces thousands of native seedlings each year, supplying USU’s own reforestation efforts as well as community-based planting programmes in surrounding areas. In addition, buffer green zones are maintained as natural barriers against land encroachment and unregulated land use, helping to safeguard forest edges and limit opportunities for invasive species to take hold. Together, these measures illustrate how carefully managed natural areas can serve as both open-air classrooms and frontline defences for ecosystem integrity.
Research underpins much of this work. The Faculty of Forestry, working closely with the Faculties of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, plays a leading role in guiding conservation and land-management decisions. Faculty-led studies track ecosystem health, assess land-use impacts, and generate data on vegetation composition and habitat condition—information that is essential for understanding and managing the risks associated with invasive species. Habitat zoning is used to identify key biodiversity hotspots and ensure that they are protected from disruptive activities and from the introduction of non-native species. Relevant faculties are actively involved in reviewing new or planned developments to ensure that buildings and open spaces function as green buffers and support habitat connectivity rather than fragmenting it. In this way, the protection of local flora and fauna is embedded directly into land-use decisions.
Even though invasive alien species are not always named explicitly in policy documents, the land-use and biodiversity management principles applied at Bekala and other campus sites are designed to limit their spread and ecological impacts. Maintaining balanced ecosystems dominated by native species, restoring degraded areas, and avoiding unnecessary habitat fragmentation all help reduce the vulnerability of USU’s landscapes to biological invasion. These practices already operate as an informal control system, and they provide a strong platform for the development of more detailed invasive-species management guidelines—such as early-detection protocols, species-selection standards for landscaping, and response procedures for newly detected invasions.
Collaboration further strengthens these efforts. In 2024, the Faculty of Forestry signed a cooperation agreement with the Balai Standardisasi Instrumen Pertanian Sumatera Utara (BSIP Sumut) to enhance campus land management and promote the sustainable use of forestry and agricultural resources. The partnership supports joint research on sustainable land utilisation, field monitoring and reforestation with native vegetation, and community engagement programmes that encourage students and local residents to participate in land stewardship. These initiatives support national biodiversity goals and align with Indonesia’s FOLU Net Sink 2030 framework, which aims to balance emissions in the forestry and land-use sectors by 2030.
Education is another key pillar of USU’s strategy. Through the Faculties of Forestry and Environmental Sciences, topics related to biodiversity, ecosystem resilience, and invasive-species risks are integrated into teaching and research. Students conduct biodiversity surveys and habitat monitoring in the Bekala Arboretum and surrounding forest zones, gaining practical experience in field methods and ecological assessment. Research projects focus on native-species reforestation, habitat recovery, and the factors that strengthen or weaken ecosystem resistance to invasion. Workshops, seminars, and guest lectures emphasise ecological balance, biosecurity awareness, and habitat management, equipping students and campus stakeholders with the knowledge needed to recognise early warning signs of invasive species and respond appropriately.
While the university’s current initiatives already reflect strong ecological and biosecurity principles, USU recognises the value of moving towards a formal Invasive Alien Species Management Policy as a logical next step in its environmental governance. Building on existing tools—native-species reforestation, habitat zoning, research-led land management, and cross-faculty planning—such a policy would standardise monitoring and early detection, formalise species-selection guidelines, and define clear procedures for coordinated responses.
Through its integrated approach to land management, biodiversity protection, research, and education, Universitas Sumatera Utara shows how a university can function as a living model of a sustainable ecosystem. By reinforcing environmental policy, prioritising native species, and embedding biodiversity awareness into planning and everyday campus life, USU ensures that its grounds are not only places of learning but also thriving habitats that embody ecological balance and support Life on Land.
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