Senator Loren Legarda (with back to camera) and Environment Secretary Gina Lopez, named by Sen. Gringo Honasan as “the country’s leading advocates of gross national happiness,” exchange happy high fives after considering the designation of a “Minister for Happiness”, whose guidelines would be drafted by Lopez. ###
Environment Secretary Gina Lopez (center) receives congratulatory handshakes from Senators Panfilo Lacsin (with back to camera), Juan Miguel Zubiri (partially hidden by Lacson), Loren Legarda, and Cynthia Villar (partially hidden by Legarda) following the approval by Senate the PhP28.67-B budget of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources for CY 2017. ###
Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB) Assistant Director Dr. Antonio C. Manila welcomes participants to the First Philippine Cave and Karst Forum held Nov. 9-10, 2016 at the National Museum in Manila. Dr. Manila stressed the need to raise public awareness and understanding of caves and their resources to address the threats that endanger the cave ecosystem, such as increased demand for recreational sites, treasure hunting, pollution, illegal collection of cave resources, rapid urbanization, and lack of specific statutory protection. According to him, caves are homes to specialized mineral formations, troglobites or species that live permanently in the dark environment of caves, and bodies of water such as cave rivers and pools. ###
Representatives from offices comprising the National Cave Committee (NCC), such as the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Department of Interior and Local Government, Department of Tourism, Mines and Geosciences Bureau, Biodiversity Management Bureau, UP-Museum of National History-Institute of Biological Sciences, National Museum, National Historical Institute of the Philippines, Palawan Council for Sustainable Development and local government units, pose for a photo ops during the First Cave and Karst Forum held Nov. 9-10, 2016 at the National Museum in Manila. The forum provided the avenue for participants to share their knowledge on the geology and biology of caves, their cultural, historical and ecotourism values, and on how to manage and preserving them. Scientists and scholars also presented their significant findings on caves, karst and related fields during the forum, including the discovery of fossils and new species of flora and fauna in Philippine caves. BMB Assistant Director Antonio Manila (6th from left) and BMB-CAWED chief Maritess Agayatin (4th from right) represented the DENR as the organizer of the forum. ######
Environment Secretary Gina Lopez (right) makes several purchases of organic products harvested and sold by members of the Ubay Federated Tree Planters Association, Inc. (UFTPAI) during a recent field visit to San Pascual, Ubay in Bohol. The UFTPAI is a people’s organization charged with overseeing the development of agro-forestry projects, such as coffee and bignay, under the government’s National Greening Program. Ubay is one of the six municipalities in northern Bohol that form part of the DENR’s priority convergence area for the implementation of integrated area management strategy for the development of the Carood Watershed. ###
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