In line with this year’s celebration of World Wetlands Day and consistent with the theme “Wetlands and Biodiversity”, the Society for the Conservation of Philippine Wetlands, Inc (SCPW) in partnership with the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity and the Pampanga State Agricultural Univeristy (PSAU) will conduct a learning event dubbed as “Wetlands and Agricultural Biodiversity” at the PSAU Campus in Magalang, Pampanga on 06 February 2020. Senator Cynthia Villar, Chair of the Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources as well as the Committee on Agriculture will deliver the Keynote Address at this gathering.

The event is aimed to instill awareness among key stakeholders including farmers and other members of the community, on the importance of the various ecosystem services provided by wetlands and its biodiversity. It will also mobilize citizen science through Wetlands Bioblitz using the toolkit that the SCPW developed. Other activities during the afternoon field exposure at the Paligui Wetlands are wetland walk, carabao cart ride, and birdwatching activity where they will experience and learn about this particular ecosystem and appreciate nature amidst a farm setting. The event will be highlighted by the launch of a simple design of the Paligui Wetland Centre and a briefing on the crowd funding activity for the construction of the said community
wetland education centre.

The learning event will benefit from experts and practitioners in the field of biodiversity and wetlands. Dr. Theresa Mundita S. Lim, Executive Director of the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity will talk about the ACB’s projects and activities particularly dealing with agricultural biodiversity while Dr. Simplicia A. Pasicolan will discuss biodiversity in the Candaba Wetlands. This year’s theme “Wetlands and Biodiversity” and Ramsar Convention will be explained by Ms. Amy Lecciones. Dr. Honorio M. Soriano, Jr., President of Pampanga State Agricultural University, will host the morning session of the learning event while Mr. Virgilio Manalili, Barangay Chairperson of Barangay Paligui, Candaba, Pampanga and Mr. Gaudencio de Leon, President of Macagatal
Irrigators Association will host the field exposure activity.

The Wetlands Bioblitz activity will be led by Prof. Ivy Amor F. Lambio and Mr. Cristian Lucañas of the UPLB Institute of Biological Sciences, Dr. Simplicia A. Pasicolan of DENR – Ecosystems Research and Development Bureau, and Ms. Darry Shel M. Estorba of SCPW. Teachers and students from Bahay Pare National High School will participate in characterizing the wetland through the Wetlands Bioblitz activity.

The programme for the SCPW World Wetlands Day Celebration is found below: