EU to support 4 RP biodiversity research projects

LOS BAÑOS, Laguna – Four research projects on biodiversity will be conducted by three government agencies and one private entity with funding support from the European Union (EU).

The research grant contracts covering the projects were signed last July 12 at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in Quezon City.

Signatories to the contracts were the Los Baños-based ASEAN Regional Center for Biodiversity Conservation (ARCBC), represented by co-directors Gregorio Texon and Dr. John McKinnon; DENR-Ecosystems Research and Development Bureau (ERDB), represented by Director Celso Diaz and project leader Merlyn Rivera; University of the Philippines Marine Science Institute (UP-MSI), represented by project leader Dr. Wilfredo Licuanan; Silliman University Angelo King Center for Research and Environmental Management (SU-AKCREM) in Dumaguet City, represented by project leader Dr. Ely Alcala; and Bioresource Conservation Trust for the Philippines, Inc. (BCTPI) based in Pandan, Antique, represented by project leader Dr. Samuel Koffa and Fel Ceasar Cadiz.

Those who signed as witnesses were DENR Secretary Heherson Alvarez; Ambassador Ives Gazzo, head of the EU delegation in the Philippines, who was represented by Gildo Pivetta, charge d’affaires a.i.; Patrick Hanmer, program administrator of ARCBC; and Dr. Aida B. Lapis, chief of ARCBC’s research branch.

The research projects have been approved for implementation by EU and DENR (as the executing agency) upon recommendation of ARCBC’s Scientific Expert Committee.

With an aggregate budget of 271,525 Euros (P12 million), the research projects form part of ARCBC’s research grant program.

ARCBC is a joint cooperation project of EU and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Established in 1997 and launched in May 1999, it aims to intensify biodiversity conservation through improved cooperation in a comprehensive regional context by assisting in setting up a network of institutional links among ASEAN countries and between ASEAN and EU partner-organizations.

EU provides the means for networking, applied research, training, and technical assistance while ASEAN provides support personnel, facilities, and office spaces.

The Philippine government, which represents ASEAN, has designated DENR as the project’s executing agency.

The research projects and their implementing agencies are as follows:

• Resource Assessment, Economic Valuation, and Identification of Alternative Livelihood Options in the Areas Within and Surrounding the Lamon Bay, Ragay Gulf, and Tayabas Bay, Philippines – DENR-ERDB.

• Inventory of Scleractinian Corals of the Pacific Coast of the Philippines. Part I: Eastern Visayas and Northeastern Mindanao – UPMSI.

• Responses of the Herpetological and Mammalian Faunas of Negros Island, Philippines, to Fragmentation of the Tropical Rain Forest – SU-AKCREM.

• Ecological Assessment, Restoration and Protection of the Northwest Panay Low-elevation Forest Ecosystem: Developing Community-based Agroforestry Systems for Natural Resources Management and Biodiversity Conservation – BCTPI.