Senator lauds environmental science educators

CATARMAN, Northern Samar,June 16 -- Senator Cynthia Villar on Friday lauded the Philippine Environmental Science Association (PESA) for its role in addressing environmental challenges confronting the country.

Villar noted that PESA members, composed of professors and students, are not only concerned about the problems of the environment, but are committed towards finding solutions.

“The goal for which the PESA was organized is to strengthen the value of environmental science as an inter-disciplinary field in analyzing and providing solutions to the perennial environmental problems of the country,” said the chair of the Senate committee on environment and natural resources.

Villar was in this town as guest speaker of the 7th Annual International Conference on Environmental Science (ACES) held at the University of Eastern Philippines (UEP) here on June 13-15.

This year’s theme was “Environmental Science, Green Technology and Society: Pushing Boundaries Towards Sustainability”.

The senator said she believes that science research and technology play a very important role in solving various problems related to environmental degradation.

“I saw how science and technology, coupled with research and education, have paved the way in solving most of the problems and challenges of environment and agriculture sectors,” Villar added.

She expressed support for PESA’s pro-active stance to continuously upgrade and advance the level of environmental science research and actions to address the environmental problems.

Villar recognized participants for tackling key environmental topics and issues, such as climate change, biodiversity and conservation, disaster risk management and sustainable solutions.

“The input and research output of the participants in this conference, from the academe, (to) other stakeholders, research institutions, government agencies, (and) private organizations, will surely be very useful and helpful in finding solutions and implementing strategies to address environmental problems,” she said.

PESA is a consortium of higher education institutions that aims to strengthen the value of environmental science as an interdisciplinary field in analyzing and providing solutions to perennial environment problems in the country, in partnership with UEP and the University of the Philippines-Los Baños School of Environmental Science and Management. (LAAA/PNA)