UP Visayas received Rare Philippines and Rare Global Operations at the Center for West Visayan Studies (CWVS), UPV Iloilo City Campus on August 16, 2023.
Kamalika Datta, Vice President, Global Operations, led the team composed of Jerlinda Madriga (Director, Program Finance), Maria Angelina Uson (Senior Program Manager), Alexandru Rotaru (Program Manager), Vanessa Merritt (Coordinator, Fish Forever Program). They were joined by Rare PH Team Fel Ceasar T. Cadiz (Director, Capacity Exchange and Learning), May V. Blanco (Director, Program Implementation), Rizaller Amolo (Director, Marine Science and Governance) and Lovella Mae Magluyan (Program Implementation Manager).
The meeting discussed the best practices, challenges, lessons, and insights that were taken from the partnership between Rare and UP Visayas, especially in the programs and projects implemented in accordance with the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the UPV College of Fisheries and Rare in 2022.
Also discussed were the furtherance of these engagements, bringing in additional entities from UP Visayas such as the UPV Center for West Visayan Studies, UPV Office of Continuing Education, UPV Pahinungod and the UP Extension Campus in Antique (UPECA). This is in light of the launching of programs to be implemented in Antique and the Project on Coastal Protection and Management that UPV will be implementing soon. Training programs for fisherfolks will be started in September this year at the UPECA.
Representing UP Visayas were Prof. Caridad Jimenez (Director of the College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences Institute of Fisheries Policy and Development Studies), Dr. Farisal Bagsit (Director, Ugnayan ng Pahinungod), Prof. Frances Anthea Redison (Director, CWVS), Ms. Anna Razel L. Ramirez (UPV Project Dev't. Assistant for Antique), Ms. Leilanie Geduspan (Planning Officer), and UPV University Research Associates Sashah Dioso, Genna Serofia, and Ruby Napata.
Rare is an international conservation organization, whose stated mission is to help communities adopt sustainable behaviors toward their natural environment and resources. Their program Fish Forever in the Philippines works with fishing villages and municipal governments to build and strengthen community-based coastal fisheries management of the Philippines’ municipal waters.
In Panay, Rare implements programs and projects in the Northern Panay Peninsula, which includes Pandan, where the UP Antique Extension Campus is located and will be inaugurated soon.
