The five-part ePraxis webinar that centered on COVID-19 issues in human settlements planning concluded on Sept. 24 with its focus on water, sanitation, and waste.
ePraxis was organized by the Department of Community and Environmental Resource Planning (DCERP) of the College of Human Ecology (CHE).
The webinar’s edition featured three speakers, each based in the Philippines, USA, and the United Kingdom.
What happens when plastics and pandemics collide? In a Let’s Talk it Over (LTiO) webinar, the Master of Environment and Natural Resources Management (MENRM) program led a discussion on the double whammy problem of the COVID-19 pandemic and plastic pollution. The webinar was live-streamed on 30 September 2020 via the University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU) Networks, UPOU Multimedia Center Facebook page, and UPOU YouTube channel.
The recorded increase of stressed and anxious Filipinos amidst the COVID-19 pandemic motivated the Knowledge Management Office of the College of Public Affairs and Development (CPAf-KMO) to tackle mental health in a webinar on Sept. 25. Entitled “Taking care of our mental health in the time of COVID-19 and remote learning,” the Zoom webinar that […]
Tourism can still be done during this pandemic, for as long as health and safety protocols are observed.
This is according to For. Roberto Cereno, UPLB’s ecotourism expert, at the sixth edition of the webinar “Living dangerously series” of the School of Environmental Science and Management (SESAM) on Sept. 24.
In his presentation entitled “Ecotourism beyond the pandemic: picnic after the panic?” For. Cereno lamented that the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the tourism industry worldwide, with US$730 billion recorded loss in tourism exports.
Officials of the University of the Philippines (UP) Mindanao and the local governments of Davao del Norte witnessed a milestone in their collaboration agreement with the turnover of a COVID-19 testing facility by the builder Maer Summit Konstrukt Company to the end-user Davao Regional Medical Center (DRMC) in ceremonies held on 27 August 2020, in the Davao del Norte Provincial Capitol in Tagum City. Mr. Dino Mae Suelto, the Managing Partner of Maer Summit Konstrukt, presented the certificate of turnover to DRMC chief Dr. Bryan Dalid in the presence of the project partners.
After its successful fundraising event in August, the UP Junior Finance Association (UP-JFA) re-launched the donation drive “Project Sukli” this September to help the UP-Philcoa jeepney drivers gravely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In its Sept. 6 Facebook page post, UP-JFA said funds raised for Project Sukli will be used to buy relief packs for the beneficiaries comprising rice, canned goods and other essentials per pack.
Chancellor Fernando C. Sanchez, Jr., formally endorsed on June 30, 2020 to the UP Board of Regents the proposed amendment on the guidelines for the Enhanced Hospitalization Programme (eHOPE) drafted by the UPLB eHOPE Committee.
The eHOPE is hospitalization benefits coverage for faculty members, research, extension, and professional staff (REPS), and administrative staff of UP.
The University of the Philippines Pandananon (UPP), together with the Office of Pandan, Antique Vice Mayor Raymund Nonato Gumboc, organized a weekend market to highlight Pandan’s artisanal foods and other products on September 13, 2020, 7:00 am to 1:00 pm, at the Liberman Sports Center in the at the said municipality.
The Metro Iloilo Hospital and Medical Center (MIHMC), Inc. has formally opened its COVID-19 Testing Laboratory on September 18, 2020 with vital support from Philippine Genome Center- Visayas headed by Dr. Noel Ferriols and experts from top educational institutions in Iloilo City.
Is wildlife a friend or a foe in the COVID-19 pandemic? This is what the Master of Environment and Natural Resources Management (MENRM) program discussed during the Let’s Talk it Over (LTiO) Lecture Series on 17 September 2020 and live-streamed via the University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU) Networks.
Dr. Consuelo Dl. Habito, Chair of the MENRM program, opened the webinar with the introduction of the three speakers. The first was Prof. Phillip Alviola, associate professor and bat ecologist at the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) and curator at the UPLB Museum of Natural History. Prof. Alviola discussed current knowledge about potential zoonotic viruses carried by Philippine bats, where he shared results of bat virus research conducted by UPLB and University of Tokyo from 2007 to 2020. Their published results on viruses from Philippine bats include coronavirus, hantavirus, reston ebolavirus, gammaherpesvirus, and pteropine orthoreovirus.
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The second session was led by Mr. Emerson Sy, herpetologist and consultant at TRAFFIC – a non-governmental organization on wildlife trade. Mr. Sy focused on pangolin consumption, where he narrated instances of pangolin trade and trafficking, and its link to COVID-19.
“Despite legal protection accorded to pangolins, poaching and trafficking occur on a huge scale globally [with] an estimated 895,000 pangolins trafficked globally in the last two decades,” shared Mr. Sy in his presentation.
He pointed out that animal abuse and mishandling have caused zoonotic diseases, such as SARS-COV-1 in 2002 and MERS-CoV in 2012. According to Mr. Sy, although studies have shown that Sunda pangolin is likely an intermediate or direct host of COVID-19, coronaviruses are known to have multiple intermediate hosts.
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The last lecture was delivered by Dr. Juan Carlos Gonzalez, professor at UPLB and 11th director of the UPLB Museum of Natural History. Dr. Gonzalez discussed pandemics and wildlife in the anthropocene, where he related the first two lectures to emphasize the role of humans in pandemics.
“It’s easy to blame a bat, but is our wanton destruction of nature and the traditional habitats of species responsible for the pandemic gripping the world right now? Experts concur that the loss of biodiversity, mainly because of humans, is directly connected to the spread of deadly diseases like COVID-19,” shared Dr. Gonzalez as he quoted John Vidal, journalist, author, and former environment editor of The Guardian newspaper.
Dr. Gonzalez also talked about anthropogenic transfer of zoonotic diseases and its impacts on an already restricted-range, small population of threatened endemic wildlife.
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An open forum moderated by Dr. Habito was held on the last part of the LTiO. Viewers’ questions were raised via UPOU Networks chat box, YouTube comment section, and Facebook comments section. A total of 2,883 views in the three platforms were recorded during the webinar.
