The month of April is usually a busy time for college students and university faculty members who are concerned with their academic responsibilities. Many consider it not a month of rest but a month for intellectual exercise needed for their academic development — a time for learning lessons, new research tools, and novel ways of teaching, research and practicing what have been learned from great teachers and pioneering researchers.
In April 2012, two important meetings dealing with the development of the mind and involving both students and faculty were held in SEAFDEC, Iloilo and De La Salle University, Dasmariñas, Cavite. These meetings were attended by teachers and students mostly from Luzon, Mindoro, Cebu, Panay and Mindanao.
The SEAFDEC meeting was sponsored by the Outstanding Young Scientists, Inc. (OYSI), an organization of bright young faculty members who have demonstrated their ability to conduct research and to publish their research papers in ISI journals, thus contributing to the Philippine record of academic scholarship. The students and faculty members who attended the meeting came from universities on Luzon, Leyte and Mindanao. It was of interest to find that faculty members from some reputable Philippine universities were conspicuous by their absence. I hope that administrators of these institutions will take note.
The OYSI meeting is important. As Isagani Cruz notes in his column (Philippine Star, April 12, 2012), universities throughout the world are rated on the basis of the impact of published articles of their faculties. In the Philippines, only four universities, all in Manila, have been included in the list of top universities of the world.
The Dasmariñas meeting, which started in the National Museum in Manila, was the 21st Annual Biodiversity Symposium of the Wildlife Society of the Philippines (WCSP). WCSP was born on the Silliman University campus 21 years ago. Since then, it has grown to become an international organization. I was impressed by the participation of students (high school, college and graduate Students) and researchers from colleges and universities on Luzon and Mindanao. They read papers resulting from their own research using the recent methodologies, including the use of genetic information. If this trend continues, we should be able to produce top quality publications and improve our research standing among ASEAN nations. As of now, we are behind Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia in terms of scientific publications.
One of the keynote speakers, Dr. Tony Whitten, director of Fauna & Flora International, gave an interesting account of his long experience in research in the rainforests of Indonesia. The insights he shared with the participants were very much appreciated. One advice he gave to researchers especially beginners in research was to write, write, write and publish, publish, publish, which is by the way, what we need in our universities.
I should also mention another development discussed in the symposium, the creation of websites for purposes of informing people of the biodiversity of the Philippines and thus increase their awareness of the need for conservation of this biodiversity. This is a novel way of reaching the people of the Philippines.
I must, however, add that this is not enough; education must reach the large majority of our people who do not have access to computers through other ways such as extension and community organizing. One presentation at the symposium holds much promise: the use of present popular technologies such as cell phones and videos to aid in increasing the awareness of the unique biodiversity of the Philippines and in convincing the hard-headed to protect this biodiversity.
Let me paraphrase the great biologist E.O. Wilson: Government officials and politicians may have brilliant ideas how to conserve biodiversity, but in the long run, it is the people in the coastal areas, the uplands, the forested areas who will determine whether biodiversity will survive or become extinct.
