ICRAF Conducts Hands-on Training on the Tool and Approaches for Mainstreaming Climate Change in Biodiversity Conservation and Planning
With the aim of building the capacity of government agencies and NGO's in mainstreaming climate change in biodiversity conservation and planning, a 3-day training on climate change and biodiversity was conducted by ICRAF together with the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau (PAWB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and with financial support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
The training, held last 20-22 June 2012 at the University of the Philippines (UP), Diliman, Quezon City, was attended by 17 participants from Conservation International, Flora and Fauna International, Institute of Biology in UP Diliman, Philippine Tropical Forest Conservation Foundation Inc., and PAWB and Forest Management Bureau of DENR.
The participants were trained on climate change concepts, the use and application of Geographic Information System (GIS), and biodiversity modelling using Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) model. Research staff from the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) and ICRAF-Philippines served as resource persons during the activity.
This activity was organized in conjunction with the USAID-funded project on Mainstreaming Climate Change in Biodiversity Planning and Conservation in the Philippines.
Hands-on Training
The training featured highly informative lectures on the causes of climate change and its impacts to different sectors such as water, agriculture, forestry and social system in the Philippines, discussed by ICRAF Assistant Project Director, Dr. Florencia Pulhin. The use of global climate models to generate scenarios of future climate change and its application in the development of dynamic simulations models were discussed by IRI Research Scientists Dr. Bradfield Lyon and Dr. Amor Ines, respectively.
The training highlight, however, was the hands-on and practical approach of teaching the use of modern technological tools and approaches. Mr. Leo Kris Palao, Researcher and GIS Specialist of ICRAF-Philippines, shared his knowledge and experiences on the concepts and use of GIS. He stressed on the relevance of GIS in different applications such as hydrologic modelling for soil and water conservation, watershed management, environmental impact assessment, wildlife conservation, species suitability assessment, among others. The participants were asked to practice what they have learned by performing exercises using open source GIS software.
The participants also received hands-on training on the actual application of biodiversity modelling as a decision tool from Ms. Kristine Garcia, Researcher of ICRAF-Philippines. Ms. Garcia explained that biodiversity modelling, allows the predicted distribution and habitat requirements of a species to be determined, without intensive surveying. She highlighted that biodiversity modelling would be very useful in efforts to protect and conserve biodiversity areas particularly those where threatened and endangered forest tree species can be found. As an example of a biodiversity modelling tool, Ms. Garcia gave an introduction to species distribution models (SDMs), specifically the MaxEnt model.
Finally, ICRAF-Philippines Researcher Forester Alfie Torres shared the results of an ICRAF study on 'Compiling a Georeferenced Database of Forest Tree Species in the Philippines'. Mr. Torres emphasized that the effort would be very useful in biodiversity management, specifically in the following areas: determining priority species for seed/germplasm collection and taxonomic identification, historical spatial mapping of specimen collections, visualizing species occurrence on a national scale, and species distribution modelling and ecosystem analysis.
Throughout the 3-day training, the participants expressed keen interest in learning the different tools and approaches, and agreed on their potential applications to government efforts on the protection and conservation of biodiversity.
