UP ISSI participated in the First National Biodiversity Congress which was held 22-24 May 2017 at the Crowne Plaza Galleria Manila Hotel at Ortigas Center in Pasig City. With the theme “Upwelling of Lessons, Sustaining Community Benefits in the Conservation of Landscapes and Seascapes”, it provided civil society organizations, government partners and other stakeholders with a venue to improve their conservation practices through the exchange of emerging lessons from their ongoing and past projects, and to collectively pursue biodiversity goals at local, national and international fronts. Organized by the Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, it was attended by some 400 participants from the civil society, people’s organizations, academic institutions and local government units from various parts of the country.
UP ISSI, a partner in BMB’s Biodiversity Partnerships Project since 2013, participated in the session on Product Lines of Community-based Biodiversity-friendly Enterprise (BDFE). The workshop session had a survey of the BDFE products of local communities and the challenges they face in the various aspects of their enterprises. Engr. Leoncio T. Cubillas Jr. and Marsha Lee A. Delfinado of UP ISSI’s Business Enterprise Development Division served as session resource persons with Luna Gracia P. Ahmad, investment specialist from the Department of Trade and Industry’s Board of Investments.