by Lorna M. Calumpang, KMU-SEARCA
10-October-2008 SEARCA News Release
Says former IPGRI1 director and currently SEARCA Senior Fellow, Dr. Percy E. Sajise during the alumni symposium and homecoming of the School of Environmental Science and Management (SEASAM), University of the Philippines-Los Baños.2
Sketching the current status and trends on natural resources and environment in Southeast Asia, Sajise mentioned that high GDP showed high environmental deterioration. "The challenge is on how to decouple growth in GDP with environmental deterioration… and to look if this can be done by landscape or land use planning, agroecosystem diversity maintenance, or key development…"
Biotechnology, Biodiversity, Climate change and their impact on social, cultural and biophysical attributes are also, among others, major emerging issues in coming up with sustainable natural resource use and development.
Sajise discussed that an important thought that weaves these issues together is traditional knowledge. Properly harnessed and being attached to "material and receiver makes traditional knowledge" a life-giving solution. Sajise cited a story of one community in India which survived a tsunami incidence because an old man from that community saw the red crabs crawling to the uplands. That old man was able to convince the whole community to go to the uplands because in his experience, red crabs migrating out of the seashores indicated an incoming occurrence of big waves.
In looking for solutions to chronic environmental problems, Sajise challenged the environmental practitioners present during the occasion to form into working groups so that they can create greater impacts. These groups, as he suggested, would include Climate Change Mitigations and Adaptation; Reduced Emission from Deforestation and Forest Deterioration; Biodiversity, Livelihood and Food Security; Coastal Resource Management; and Policy to promote sustainable development.
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Endnotes:
1 IPGRI is now known as Bioversity; http://www.bioversityinternational.org
2 University of the Philippines is currently celebrating its 100 years of foundation.
