FORUM September-October 2011 9 Collection, evaluation and utilization of FAYLON, from p. 8 exportable agricultural products. This ongoing livelihood and divert their attention from further project on exportable products is a collaboration encroaching on biodiversity-rich forest habitats. between the government and the Mama Sita S&T is critical in providing capacity to delineate Foundation. It makes available the best of selected large tracts of land and their uses in support of the crop varieties to local growers who intend to have land-use demarcation and boundary delineation of these grown in large scale for export. Selected PAs within forestlands, identify land-use conflicts exportable agricultural crops are evaluated for with mines, titled lands, ancestral domains through adaptability, productivity and optimum growth and computer-based and satellite-based technologies then promoted to interested clientele. such as remote sensing and GIS. Safekeeping crop diversity at the National FORUM: What are the DOST-PCARRD’s policy Germplasm Repository. This completed project is thrusts and activities that are related to the protection a PCARRD-IPB-NPGRL collaboration that aimed and conservation of Philippine biodiversity? to regenerate threatened collections of annual FAYLON: PCARRD has partnered with key crop germplasm and fruit trees, and safeguard the government and non-government entities in sharing germplasm of asexually propagated species. The our resources for the conservation and management project will ensure the availability of good quality of biodiversity. Our participation in biodiversity seeds for plant breeders, researchers, and farmers, conservation activities on a national level includes as well as the conservation of treasured germplasm policy advocacy. We also have recently affirmed our for succeeding generations. support for the Council’s position to resolve landCollection, conservation, regeneration and use conflicts in protected areas such as overlaps of re-introduction of indigenous orchids on selected mining areas, ancestral domain claims and titled protected habitats. The project aimed to conserve lands within PAs. Land-use conflict is one of the diversity of indigenous orchid species; regenerate major barriers to effective biodiversity conservation genotypes and produce planting materials; and and management. re-introduce and maintain indigenous orchids in In recognition of the importance of biodiversity, selected natural habitat in situ. PCARRD and its R&D Network have identified and DOST-PCARRD Executive Director Patricio Faylon Conservation and use of tropical fruit species considered as priority the generation of knowledge diversity in the Philippines. Philippines.This completed project’s milestone achievements and technologies in the conservation and management of biodiversity. Of the 14 include: (a) Collecting, characterization, evaluation and maintenance of tropical R&D consortia in the country, 12 regions have identified biodiversity as priority fruit tree species in selected areas of the Philippines; (b) Registration with the and PCARRD has committed strong support to pursue R&D in these regions. Some specific programs that PCARRD is supporting on biodiversity National Seed Industry Council (NSIC) new jackfruit variety, (“Baybay Sweet”) and a mangosteen accession (“Roxas Purple”); (c) Descriptors for Durian (Durio include: Integrated R&D Program on Biodiversity Assessment and Conservation of zibethinus Murr.); (d) Draft Descriptors for Pili; (e) Documentation of the tropical Selected Forest Ecosystem in Central Luzon. This project is being implemented fruit diversity in Palawan (a potential source of food, additional source of income by the Central Luzon State University in partnership with DENR-ERDS Region 3, for the indigenous people), as well as the status of conservation and threats of Aurora State College of Sciences and Technology, and the Bataan Peninsula State tropical fruits in Palawan. This project was coordinated by PCARRD with funds from Bioversity International and implemented by UPLB, BPI-DNCRDC, WPU, University. This program started in June 2011 and will run for three years. The Forest Biodiversity Park. This project is jointly being implemented by DA-EVIARC, and DA-AES. Introduction, evaluation, development of package of technology and PCARRD, DOST-NCR, FPRDI-DOST and supported by biodiversity experts FAYLON, p. 14 from the UPLB College of Forestry and Natural Resources.
SURVEY, from p. 8 Alcala also identified gaps in the various thrusts of biodiversity research projects, reiterating the predominance of survey and monitoring projects, which “needs to be critically assessed, especially the surveys, which tend to be superficial.” Sustainable production and biodiversity uses with the view toward providing food security and other basic needs for people are urgently needed, as is conservation and management in light of the Philippines’ status as a biodiversity “hotspot.” There was also a need for ecology and restoration studies followed by action programs. “Studies on evolution, genetics, and systematics, which are not too many in the country, should be encouraged because of the rapid degradation of habitats and the heavy exploitation rates, both of which threaten the survival of endemic species,” added Alcala. There was also a lack of research projects dealing with mathematical ecosystem modeling and biosafety and biosecurity issues. Biodiversity research in UP In recent years, the University of the Philippines has continued to lead in biodiversity research projects and studies, with research projects moving slowly but steadily to fill the gaps in our biodiversity research thrusts. In UP Diliman, the Office of the Vice-Chancellor for Research and Development (OVCRD) Project Management and Data Center has cited 52 research projects on biodiversity, both ongoing and published, within the last three years. A great majority of them are marine research, and include the “Philippine Pharmaseas Drug Discovery Program Project," “Conservation Strategy Based on Regional Reef Connectivity and Environment Load Assessment in SEA-WP Region,” “Integrated Coastal Enhancement: Coastal Research, Evaluation and Adaptive Management for Climate Change” and “Reef Restoration: Preserving Coral Biodiversity and Increasing Reef Resilience in the Face of Climate Change,” among others. Non-marine
research include “Partnership for Biodiversity Conservation: Mainstreaming in Local Agricultural Landscape Implementing Institution,” “Climate Change Adaptation strategies: Biodiversity Sector and Impacts of Climate Change on Agriculture” and “Urban Biodiversity Studies of UP Diliman.” The UP Baguio College of Science, through Dean Dr. Wilfredo V. Alangui, listed 18 biodiversity research studies, both completed and ongoing. In keeping with UP Baguio’s milieu—the mountainous environment of Northern Philippines—many of the research projects are terrestrial, including surveys of the abundance and distribution of particular plants (including traditional medicinal plants), fauna and microorganisms in various locations of the Cordilleras, including certain areas in Benguet and Kalinga. A cursory look at the UP Los Baños Research and Extension Online Database (http://redb.uplb. edu.ph) yielded five recent biodiversity-related research projects: “Biodiversity Assessment of Mt. Makiling,” “Biodiversity of Thermal Hot Springs: Zooplankton and Benthos,” “Enhancing Potential of the Philippine Rice Genetic Resources and Continuing Effective Conservation of its Biodiversity,” “Plankton Biodiversity, Water Quality and Environmental Status of Los Baños” and “Terrestrial Arthropod Biodiversity in Conservation Priority Areas, Part I.” The Museum of Natural History (MNH), however, has had a remarkable track record over the past six years, discovering several new species of mites, stick insects, Rafflesia, lichens, frog, spiders, trematodes, homoprotozoan, plants and small mammals, and recording some new species of birds, mealybug, wasp and plants. Since 2006, the MNH has also undertaken 77 biodiversity-related research projects, many of which involve the inventory, cataloguing, databasing and survey of species of flora and fauna in certain areas in Southern Luzon. The Office of the Vice-Chancellor for Research and Extension (OVCRE) of the UP Visayas lists 77 concluded, biodiversity-related researches. Many of
the research projects were conducted by faculty and researchers from the College of Arts and Science and the College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, while some were conducted by researchers from the School of Technology in partnership with the UPLB-National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, the UP Diliman Marine Science Institute, and UP Mindanao. As befits the premier institution for fisheries research in the country, all the research projects are marine. Some of these are “Biodiesel Production from Marine Micro Algae and Seaweeds,” “Coastal and Marine Resource Management in the Philippines,” “Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation: Marine and Coastal Situation Analysis," “Integrated and Sustainable Development Program for the Shrimp Industry," “Management of Tuna Fisheries in the Philippines” and “The Monitoring and Rehabilitation Program of the UPV-Marine Biological Station.”
New thrusts in biodiversity research in the Philippines The years 2011 to 2020 are shaping up to be a critical decade for the world’s biodiversity. In its October 2010 meeting in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan, the Convention on Biological Diversity adopted a revised and updated Strategic Plan for Biodiversity, which various countries, including the Philippines, agreed to translate into their own NBSAPs within the next two years.10 The Philippine Development Plan of 20112016 11, released last May 2011 by the National Economic Development Authority, revealed the added protective measures the government has put in place in terms of biodiversity conservation. Some of these measures include cave and wetland management through an Updated National Wetlands Action Plan for the Philippines; the proclamation of a total of 111 protected areas since the passage of the National Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS) Act in 1992; various issuances on the protection of specific species or areas, such as Executive Order SURVEY, p. 14