SEA center funds 3 RP research projects

LOS BAÑOS, Laguna — A Southeast Asian center based here has provided start-up funding support for three research projects of Filipino scientists.

Now being supported by the government-hosted Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) are the following research projects:

• Agro-ecosystems Analysis for the Sustainable Development of Lake Buhi, of Dr. Cely Binoya, Prof. Arthur Estrella, Dr. Celerino Llesol, Prof. Joyce de la Trinidad, and Flordeliza Valenzuela, all of the Camarines Sur State Agricultural College (CSSAC) in Pili, Camarines Sur.

• Modeling Optimal Environmental Services Payments (ESP) in the Uplands: Income Distribution, Targeting Schemes, and Financing, of Dr. Asa Jose Sajise of the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB).

• Integrating Environmental and Natural Resources Accounting into Local Government Planning: A Modified Input-Output Model for LGUs, of Prof. Agham Cuevas, also of UPLB.

The three research projects are among the seven approved for SEARCA funding under the center’s Seed Fund for Strategic Research and Training (SFRT) program.

The four other projects are by Vietnamese researchers.

SEARCA is one of the 15 "centers of excellence" of the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Council (SEAMEO), an inter-government body founded in 1965 to foster cooperation among Southeast Asian nations in the fields of education, science and culture.

SEARCA director Arsenio Balisacan said the SFRT program provides selected research and training proposals with limited start-up funding intended to enhance their chances of securing long-term support from donor agencies.

The seed fund for a research/training grant ranges from $10,000 to $15,000, said Dr. Balisacan, a former agricultural undersecretary and a professor of the UP Diliman-School of Economics.

The CSSAC study aims to determine the agro-ecological practices in the buffer zone and agriculture areas surrounding Lake Buhi and their effects on the lake as well as on the upland dwellers/farmers and indigenous people.

It also seeks to generate awareness and identify coping mechanisms to reduce, if not counter, the effects of the agro-ecological practices on the stakeholders.

It hopes to come up with an inventory of commercial fishcages and other industrial uses of the lake; analyze the local ordinances related to the use of the agro-ecological system; and determine possible sanctuaries of tabios to sustain its population.

Lake Buhi is home to the endangered tabios or sinarapan (Mystichtyhys luzonensis), considered the world’s smallest extant commercial fish species.

A denuded watershed surrounds the lake, resulting in the lake’s siltation and thus, endangering the tabios population.

According to the CSSAC researchers, the continuing production of tilapia in the lake has also imperiled the tabios population.

For his part, Cuevas wants to develop a localized environmental and natural accounting system and incorporate it into the planning processes of local governments.

Sajise’s study, on the other hand, aims to analyze the efficiency and distributional consequences of performance- and practice-based environmental service payment contracts in the uplands.