Dr. David Shearer, Director of International Partnerships and Program Delivery and Interim Research Lead of WorldFish based in Indonesia, paid a courtesy visit recently to Dr. Reynaldo V. Ebora, Acting Executive Director of the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PCAARRD) during his visit to the WorldFish headquarter in Los Baños, Laguna. With him was Interim Director of WorldFish Philippines, Dr. Lily Ann D. Lando.
In a bid to strengthen the partnership between PCAARRD and WorldFish, Dr. Shearer and Dr. Ebora discussed possible areas of collaboration. Sharing PCAARRD’s priorities, Dr. Ebora stressed on the strengthened engagement with its Regional Consortia which could pave way for more active collaboration in the future with WorldFish. He specifically mentioned identifying few, core but high-impact programs/projects for the aquatic sector.
Dr. Ebora also emphasized the Council’s commitment to capacity building initiatives and welcomed the network and program of WorldFish to help reach out to Filipino researchers and experts. Dr. Shearer echoed this concern and committed to proposing long-term goals for capacity building of partners.
The PCARRD-WorldFish Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), signed on October 12, 2012, is grounded on the purpose of developing collaborative activities in the furtherance of the common goals and objectives of both parties and generally covers research, training and information sharing, and utilizing joint expertise. As expressed during the meeting, PCAARRD and WorldFish will renew the MOU this year and will discuss collaboration areas to be included in the work plan that will serve as basis in implementing the MOA.
The last PCAARRD-WorldFish work plan was for 2014-2015. For said work plan, PCAARRD and its network participated in WorldFish-led workshops/seminars and were also tapped as source of resource persons for various awareness campaigns focusing on sea cucumber. Moreover, the project, entitled “Aquaculture Futures Fish Supply and Demand Scenarios and the Sustainable Growth of Aquaculture in the Philippines,” has been completed.
PCAARRD also helped in advocating policies related to various concerns in the aquatic sector, such as the size regulation of sea cucumber harvest.
Currently PCAARRD and WorldFish have two ongoing projects with the Central Luzon State University (CLSU) in Nueva Ecija - the “Impact Assessment of the Closed Fishing Season Policy for Sardines in the Visayan Sea” and “Assessing the Status and Forecasting the Technical Human Resource Requirements for a Robust Fisheries and Aquaculture Development.”