A local marine scientist based at Silliman University has been awarded the highly-coveted 2025 Pew Fellows in Marine Conservation by the Pew Charitable Trusts based in the US.
Dr. Aileen Pascual Maypa, associate professor and research coordinator at the SU Institute of Marine & Environmental Sciences, will be supported by Pew over a three-year fellowship program to restore and rebuild damaged or declining coral reefs, which provide vital services to coastal communities—including shoreline protection—and create habitats for nearly a quarter of all marine species.
“The quality of your research proposal, your professional record, and problem-solving abilities, and your potential to contribute to marine conservation were all factors in the selection committee’s decision,” read a letter from Michele Haynes from the Pew fellowship program.
Dr. Maypa and five other international researchers from China, Curaçao, Indonesia, and South Africa as the newest recipients of the Pew fellowships in marine conservation that started 35 years ago in 1990. Each will lead a three-year research project designed to improve management and protection of marine life.
“I am grateful to the Pew. It is good to be appreciated at the global level for doing something that I love doing, and which I believe contributes to the common good and sustainability of our future,” said Maypa.
She said she will be busy for the next three years initiating the acceleration of the recovery of the country’s degraded coral reefs.
“My first objective is to develop science-based and community-friendly protocols for effective reef restoration,” Dr. Maypa said. This includes developing toolkits outlining effective practices in the communities that can contribute to local and national biodiversity policy frameworks.
Within the three-year time frame, Maypa said she also aims to collaborate with coral restoration scientists, practitioners, and government agencies to convene the country’s first nationwide coral restoration-focused network.
She said her work at Silliman will be national in scope. “I am collaborating with UP Marine Science Institute in Diliman (Dr. Vanessa Baria-Rodriguez), the UP National Institute of Physics (Dr. Maricor Soriano), the Mindanao State University in Tawi-Tawi (Dr. Richard Mualil), and the University of Guam-Marine Laboratory (headed by former Silliman faculty Dr. Laurie Raymundo).”
Her third goal is to contribute to the developing National Coral Reef Program which, she said, has been combined with the Philippine Biodiversity Strategic Action Plan that will also contribute to the “30×30” Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
The 30×30 target is a guide on how to implement the new global target of conserving 30 percent of the earth by the year 2030.
Dr. Maypa said that although there are many challenges at the local and national level on marine biodiversity conservation, “it is validating that there are people and international institutions like the Pew that support our efforts,” she said.
Among other local concerns, Maypa has been at the forefront of monitoring why the current construction of a jetty port in Apo Island was given the go signal by the Department of Environment & Natural Resources, the same government agency which had declared the Apo Island Protected Landscape and Seascape. She reminded the environment agency of their mandate on “environmental protection, and not development”.
Maypa joins the ranks of only four other Filipinos who have been awarded the Pew Fellowship program, two of whom are National Scientists: Dumaguete’s very own National Scientist Angel C. Alcala in 1999, National Scientist Edgardo D. Gomez in 2001, Academician Jurgenne Honculada- Primavera in 2005, and former Silliman faculty Dr. Rene Abesamis in 2024.
Among the five of them, Dr. Maypa is the second Fellow in marine conservation, after Dr. Alcala.
The Pew Fellows Program in Marine Conservation, with more than 200 Fellows from 42 countries, supports mid-career scientists and experts from around world to undertake research to understand and mitigate pressing challenges in the marine environment. The information produced by fellows’ projects is crucial for guiding effective stewardship of complex ocean ecosystems.
Founded in 1948, the Pew Charitable Trusts is an independent, non-profit global research and public policy organization with interests in communities, conservation, finance & economy, governance, and health. Its vision is to “serve the public interest by improving public policy, informing the public, and invigorating civic life”. (With reports from PewTrusts.org)
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Photo Caption: COUNTRY’S PRIDE. Dr. Aileen Maypa from Silliman University, this year’s Pew Marine Fellow, implements a ‘stabilization protocol’ as she monitors the growth of corals in a pyramid module with removable settlement plates in a 12-year-old coral rehabilitation site damaged by a typhoon off the coast of the town of Maria in Siquijor. (Photo by Danielle Mark Fukuda)
