To raise awareness on the conservation and sustainable use of kaigangan biodiversity, the CONserve-KAIGANGAN Program launched the Kaigangan Biodiversity Research Webinar Series, May 14 to June 18, 2021 via Zoom and Facebook Live.

This five-week webinar series was organized every Friday to present and publicize the research findings of the four research components of the CONserve-KAIGANGAN Program. This online event was participated by the online audiences from the Philippines and abroad.

The series kicked off last May 14 with opening remarks from Dr. Inocencio Buot, Jr., Program Leader of CONserve-KAIGANGAN, and welcome remarks from Ms. Diana Shane Balindo, Project Leader of CONserve-KAIGANGAN Project 4. Two webinar papers were presented during the first week: “Potentials of Economically-Important Native Plants of Samar Island, Philippines” by Prof. Marlon P. Rivera, Project Leader of CONserve-KAIGANGAN Project 2 and “Biodiversity Research for National Development” by Inocencio E. Buot, Jr.

In the second week of the series (May 21), Prof. Desamarie Fernandez of Project 1 discussed on the “Biodiversity of Forests over Limestone in Calicoan Island, Guiuan, Eastern Samar”. The following week (May 28), Ms. Jessa B. Madera and Prof. Diana Shane Balindo of Project 4 provided a talk on “Mother Trees of Samar Island Karst Forest: Identification and Community-Based Conservation”.

Two talks were presented by the speakers from Project 1 in the fourth week (June 11) of the webinar series. Ms. Elaine Villanueva discussed on “Biodiversity of Forest over Limestone Ecosystems in Samar Island Natural Park” while Prof. Marjorie delos Angeles presented a webinar on “Ecology of Understory Plants of Forests over Limestone in Samar Island, Philippines”.

Prof. John Daniel Ong of Project 3 presented on the last week (June 18) of the series as he talked about “First Report on the Profiling of Soil Bacterial and Fungal Communities in Karst Forests of Samar Using Next-Generation Sequencing”. A synthesis of the research webinar series was provided by Prof. delos Angeles.

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Missed our webinar series? You can watch it in our YouTube playlist.