THIS WEEK IN SCIENCE: UST DBS holds 13th annual Kanapi Lecture
Words by Jianna Rose Wee
The Department of Biological Sciences (DBS) hosted the 13th Carmen G. Kanapi Lecture on December 10, 2021 at 2pm via their Facebook page, featuring academicians Arvin C. Diesmos, PhD and Mudjekeewis D. Santos, PhD.
Prof. Cecilia B. Moran, Dr. rer. nat. first gave her opening remarks, followed by a tribute to the Dean Emeritus from Asst. Prof. Richard Thomas B. Pavia, Jr., PhD, current DBS chair.
The lectures began with a presentation by Dr. Diesmos, an academician affiliated with the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) and Director of the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity (ACB), on the “Biodiversity Research and Conservation in the ASEAN Region” to which he highlighted five main points.
First, he described the state at which the world was in, enumerating the occurrences of rainforest fires, deforestation, climate change, ocean crisis, and loss of culturally important areas over the past years, further stating that we were losing too much of our natural resources as a consequence of sustaining human excesses.
Second, he highlighted the importance of working harder together, listing programs under the ACB for the protection and management of biodiversity areas such as the ASEAN Heritage Parks Programme and ASEAN Flyway Network. Further collaboration with other institutions and initiatives, such as the Key Biodiversity Areas Program of the IUCN, were established.
His third point called for the need for more taxonomists in the country as more unknown species were yet to be discovered, stating that there was so much to teach about our environment and biodiversity. He further encouraged the UST Institution to revive the natural history collection of the university.
“We can still do it. You are still living in a beautiful world,” Dr. Diesmos emphasized as he concluded his lecture. Despite the changes occurring in the world, he highlighted the beauty of the different species and areas seen in the wild, with the motivation of doing our part for our ecosystems.
Dr. Santos, also an academician at the NAST and Scientist IV at the National Fisheries Research and Development Institute (NFRDI), then continued with a lecture on “How genetic markers are used for fisheries management?”.
He mentioned that although the Philippines was named the Center for Biodiversity, it was also termed the Center for Adversary as many marine species were under a threatened, declining or degraded status, thus highlighting the need for increased protection measures.
He then introduced the use of genetic markers in his work on Philippine sardines. Several findings had been developed, such as the identification of Sardinella longiceps which turned out to be S. lemuru, discovery of the S. hualiensis in the country, new species identification (S. goni from Boracay and S. pacifica from Manila Bay), and the proof that a joint management of S. lemuru with Indonesia and Malaysia was needed.
Furthermore, his studies aided conservation law enforcement in providing DNA evidence, including seafood fraud, identification of illegal shipments and sale of both prohibited and regulated species, and identification of unwanted animal species in processed food products. He ended with a call for more people in the field to discover more information on the concerned topics.
An open forum was then conducted, followed by the closing of the event led by Asst. Prof. Pavia. As a closing statement, Pavia reminded the audience that there was so much more to do and study in the field of environmental biology and research.
“It is not a result of a single day’s work, but of many hours and years of research. Even the simplest questions and curiosities can lead to important discoveries,” he added.
The Carmen Kanapi Lecture Series was created in honor of the legacy of Dean Emeritus Carmen G. Kanapi, featuring lectures from various scientific fields and researches around the country.
