The School of Environmental Science and Management-University of the Philippines Los Baños (SESAM-UPLB) conducted its first SESAM ExChanges for 2023 entitled “Making Nature-based Solutions in Wetland Ecosystems Work”, last February 28, 2023 via Zoom and Facebook Live.

Two experts in the field of wetlands were invited, namely, Dr. Amy M. Lecciones, Executive Director of the Society of Philippine Wetlands (SCPW), and Ms. Noreen Marie G. Follosco, Program Development and Project Management Director, Wetlands International Philippines.

In his welcome message, Dr. Rico C. Ancog, Dean of SESAM-UPLB said that SESAM and all the participants of this webinar is willing to learn about a very important topic, especially in the Philippines- wetlands. “Any discussions about biodiversity, conservation and climate change, as well as mitigation and adaptation, you can never do away with wetlands since there is a myriad of challenges as we see a number of wetlands being converted into different land uses”, Dr. Ancog stressed.

With her extensive experience in wetland conservation and management, Dr. Lecciones discussed a very important component of wetland conservation of SCPW- the Communication, Capacity-building, Education, Participation and Awareness (CEPA). In her presentation entitled “The status of wetland ecosystems in the Philippines: some ground-level innovative solutions”, she mentioned CEPA is delivered through their partners. She added that CEPA help address the issue on lack of awareness of people about wetlands conservation.

“To date, there is no overall national policy on wetlands in the Philippines, but the good news is there is a house bill entitled ‘National Wetlands Conservation Act’ which was filed in congress and in the senate and we are doing our best to lobby for that”, Dr. Lecciones said.

Meanwhile, in the presentation entitled “Conservation initiatives of Wetlands International Philippines”, Ms. Follosco mentioned their organization is registered locally as ‘Latian International Pilipinas’ and Wetlands International is a global non-profit organization that inspires and mobilizes actions to safeguard and restores wetlands for people in nature.

An ecologist by training, Ms. Follosco studied mangrove ecosystems and their role in coastal integrity. She mentioned that Wetlands International support the convention on wetlands or also known as the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance. “Wetlands International has recently articulated the strategic intent for 2022-2030, which include to safeguard 2 million hectares of high value coastal wetlands globally” Ms. Follosco added.

During the synthess, Dr. Badi Samaniego, SESAM assistant professor, said that he agrees that wetlands is among the least valued despite being one of the most critical as well which is important to our water supply. “What surprised me is that wetlands has the highest range of loss and degradation of all the other habitats that we have, and this is critical for our own survival”, he stressed.

SESAM ExChanges is an Environmental Challenges and Solutions Seminar Series organized by the Continuing Education and Training Division of SESAM-UPLB. For. Sofia Alaira, head of CETD, discussed the aim of SESAM ExChanges seminar series in her presentation. She expressed her gratitude to more than 200 participants in Zoom and FB Live.