Speakers

Inspired by his favorite maxim, "We cannot really change the world, but we can change ourselves for the world," Arnel B. Alipao shows the spirit of resilience in his undertaking to make a difference through advocating for a sustainable and friendly environment. A Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Youth Advocate from the province of Surigao del Norte, he was a Filipino Youth representative during the United Nations General Assembly in 2011: a thematic debate on Disaster Risk Reduction held in UN Headquarters, New York City, USA. Arnel is a DOST scholar taking up Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering in Caraga State University-Cabadbaran Campus. This young advocate believes that the best legacy for the future generations is no other than a sustainable and friendly Earth. Despite his hectic schedule and studies, he uses his spare time to participate actively in tackling global environmental issues.

TOPIC: UNICEF Report on Children and Climate Change

 

Meg Burke is the Director of Teacher and Youth Education at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. She received her Ph.D. from Duke University in animal behavior and ecology and was a university biology professor for 17 years before joining the Academy in 1998. Tropical island and coral reef ecosystems and feral animals are several of her areas of research interest and expertise. Since 2004, she has been deeply involved in educational outreach in the San Francisco Bay Area and in the Philippines, focused on Philippine coral reefs and their conservation. Her overall public education efforts try to help people understand and appreciate both the natural world and science as a process and important tool, as well as the need for environmental stewardship. She is a member of the Board of Pusod, the Philippine non-profit environmental education organization, and a member of the San Francisco – Manila Sister City Committee.

TOPIC: The 4 Cs: Connecting Children, Climate Change and Coral Reefs

Abstract:
"While it is the adults of the world that are both causing and working to minimize climate change, it is the children who will be most impacted during the course of their lives, and it is with the children – the next generation – that the greatest hope lies. Connecting children with the natural world is a critical first step in fostering environmental stewardship and advocacy. Helping them understand how their actions and the actions of others impact the environment empowers them to make a difference. As valued community resources, Children’s Museums have the opportunity to take a leadership role in helping make these connections. For the last seven years, the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, U.S.A., has been collaborating with a wide variety of stakeholders, including government agencies, NGOs, other museums, scientists, educators and students in the San Francisco Bay Area and in the Philippines, to help promote awareness and understanding of the tremendous coral reef resources in the Philippines, how they are impacted by climate change, the need for their conservation, and the steps that can be taken to do so. Coral reefs are a charismatic case study for connecting children and climate change, and this presentation will showcase a variety of ways the Academy has been addressing the issue through community outreach and engagement, lesson plans and hands-on activities for youth, and professional development resources for educators, whether classroom teachers or informal educators with museums and NGOs."

 

Maja Olivares-Co is a designer and the Executive Vice-President of Sonia Santiago-Olivares & Associates, Manila. She is also affiliated in various companies as a consultant or corporate director, such as the FILHARMONIKA Orchestra and ABS-CBN Foundation. She has received several accolades in the field of retail and design, most recent of which is an Award of Merit for the International Illuminating Design Award from the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America. She finished her tertiary education at the University of Sto. Tomas and Parson's School of Design.

TOPIC: The Paco Market Redevelopment

Abstract:
"The historic Paco Market, a 3,000 square-meter public market in the heart of Manila, is undergoing a major overhaul to the tune of P75 million (about US $1.7 million) to restore its historic structure and is building a new wing targeting the local community as well as local and foreign tourists.

The "Paco Market Redevelopment" is a significant project of the Kapit Bisig Para sa Ilog Pasig (KBPIP), a project of ABS-CBN Foundation, Inc. headed by Project Chairperson, Gina Lopez and Project Designer/Director for Culture and Education, Maja Olivares-Co of Sonia Santiago Olivares and Associates (SSO.a).
The Paco Market has a direct impact on the sustainability of the Pasig River cleanup.
The project has 5 Major Goals namely,

1. Restore the Historic Structure and Rehabilitate using "Green" Architectural methods
2. Stall Standardization and Efficient Design for Commercial Sustainability
3. Development of an Activity and Learning Center
4. Provide an Authentic Filipino Palutuan
5. Development of Products from Waste produced by the former residents of the Paco Estero who have been relocated to Caluan, Laguna"

 

Ameline Coulombier graduated with honors from Sciences Po, the Institute of Political Sciences in Paris with a Masters degree in "Creative Arts, Publishing & Broadcasting Management". Since joining Lordculture in January 2008, Ameline has worked on a number of different projects concerned with the strategic development, marketing and financial aspects of cultural institutions at large.

She was invited by the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie in Paris to speak at the Hands On! Europe 2009 conference themed "High Tech! High Touch!". Her presentation gave an overview of new trends in multimedia mediation practices in museums and was said to be "comprehensive and thought provoking".

Since 2009, Ameline has been project manager and developed the interpretive plan for a touring exhibition on climate change governance, developed in partnership with UN Environment Programme, the United Nations voice for the environment.

TOPIC: FORWARD+50 – reinventing exhibitions on climate change

Abstract:
"How can museums empower and engage citizens around the biggest economic and governance issue of our time ? FORWARD+50, developed by the United Nations Environment Programme through Lordculture, will be the first exhibition to give visitors a chance to interact with the large-scale economic choices we face in tackling climate change, helping them understand the implications of the different solutions available and building confidence in their own power to shape the future, alongside governments and business. Visitors will explore the various courses of action through a collective live action role-playing game, focused on discussion, cooperation and negotiation."

Keiko Kuroiwa is the Director of Learning Innovation Network and works with different kinds of museums such as the National Museum of Ethnology and National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation by conducting visitor studies, exhibition evaluation and development, educational resource development and staff training.

She worked as curator and researcher in Japanese museums, and as education officer in the Leicester City Gallery in the UK, where she was responsible for managing educational services and programs for diverse audiences. She also has been involved in Japan international cooperation projects with museums in Jordan and Egypt.

TOPIC: How museum exhibitions in Japan help children understand climate change

Abstract:
"All the year round, Japan is hit by natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis and typhoons. Museums in Japan have developed interactive exhibitions to raise children's awareness of natural disasters, global climate change and environmental issues. They have been trying to help audiences, especially children to understand global climate change and its implications on our lives and ecosystems. Unique programs related to disaster education are also organized by Japanese museums so that children will be able to take right actions in a natural disaster. Museums can play an important role for these issues because they accommodate diverse audiences."

 

Lilibeth La 'O is the Director/Curator of the Museo Sang Bata sa Negros (Children's Museum in Negros), the second of two children's museums and the first marine museum in the Philippines. She is also affiliated with the University of St. La Salle Ecological Park, ALAS (Asia, Latin/Central America, Africa, Sweden) Museum Network, Philippine Association of Museums and the Visayan Association of Museums and Galleries. She has been invited as a resource speaker and/or a facilitator for various museum development seminars and trainings.

Every summer, Lilibeth conducts free environmental and art workshops for streetchildren. She is also a freelance fiber artist who weaves tapestries and murals.

TOPIC: Children's Museums and Climate Change: The Silent Crisis

Abstract:
"I believe that as children's museums, we have a responsibility to create awareness about this silent crisis " Climate Change and Biodiversity Conservation" that we are all facing. Children's Museums by their very nature tend to be full of discovery, exploratory, and most of all fun and enjoyable places to visit. Yet, these fun and enjoyable experiences are very important and crucial to motivating children to learn, to be interested, to know more about the things around them. It is in these experiences where museum developers, administrators and staff can impart the basics of climate change and biodiversity conservation."

 

Carla M. Pacis is a writer, most especially of children's books and young adult novels and as such is a founder-member of Kwentista ng mgs Tsikiting or Kuting. She is also a professor with the Department of Literature at De La Salle University where she teaches courses in literature, art, and creative writing.

TOPIC: Philippine Children's Literature on Climate Change

Abstract:
"Studies show that developing countries are the most affected by climate change.  Furthermore, they say that children will suffer the most from these changes. This paper will explore how storybooks can arm children with the necessary tools and skills to survive in an ever changing world and encourage children to become agents of change. "

 

James W. Sharman is the director and coordinator of Gamot Cogon Institute, a "grass roots" initiative for societal transformation through education, training and networking. GCI currently includes a school from kindergarten to Grade 9 implementing the Steiner or Waldorf pedagogy; a teacher training program now in its seventh year; and a biodynamic farm as well as the natural environment of the school and the ecosystem in which it is situated.

Previously, Mr. Sharman was a Senior Policy Associate for a Philippine civil society organization working for sustainable development and prior to that he was a consultant for watershed management on a USAID-funded project in Mindanao. He also served as a US Peace Corps Volunteer working in water supply and sanitation in Mindoro and other rural areas of the Philippines.

Mr. Sharman received his MS degree in Watershed Management from the University of Arizona and his BS in Architectural Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.

TOPIC: The Gamot Cogon School Story

Abstract:
"Nestled amidst bamboo groves, rice fields, pasture and forest, Gamot Cogon School provides a nature setting to unfold a curriculum that educates the whole human being through an artistic approach that works to bring wholeness to how we understand our selves, how we understand our relationship with nature and with society. The talk will be  brief sharing on this initiative and approach."

 

Jose Ma. Lorenzo Tan (Lory) serves both as the CEO and Vice-Chairman of the Board of Trustees of WWF in the Philippines. Concurrently, he sits as the Chairman and President of the Philippine Tropical Forest Conservation Foundation. He is also a Commissioner for Science and Technology of the UNESCO National Commission of the Philippines. As a partner of government, particularly in the drive towards climate adaptation, Lory leads the WWF PH Management Team in the National Convergence Initiative, a partnership with Dep't of Agriculture/Dep't of Environment and Natural Resources/Dep't of Agrarian Reform toward more sustainable integrated area development, founded on an ecosystem approach to resource management. He serves as a Trustee of the Philippine Disaster Recovery Foundation.

As a co-convenor of The Philippine Imperative, Lory works with this Civil Society initiative, engaging and assisting corporations, local governments and NGOs to craft appropriate responses to climate change, particularly in the area of climate adaptation.

TOPIC: WWF-Philippines' climate change adaptation projects

Abstract:
"This presentation will focus on what WWF has done, here in the Philippines, to promote
climate adaptation. In 2009, WWF released its landmark study on the Coral Triangle and
Climate Change. Drawing from the inputs of 20 experts and 300 peer reviewed articles,
this document spelled out the details of a climate defined future that, to many people in the Region, remained unclear. This was followed by WWF's involvement in the Philippine Imperative - a civil society initiative whose purpose was to mainstream adaptation as the cornerstone for strategic planning. Most recently, WWF and the BPI Foundation, released a study that took a closer look at four Philippine cities - Baguio, Cebu, Iloilo and Davao - providing an assessment of business risks and opportunities emerging from Climate Change."

 

Thomas van der Walt is a professor in the Department of Information Science at the University of South Africa (Unisa) where he teaches archival science, children’s literaure and information user studies.

He did his doctorate in Library and Information Science on the portrayal of the Boer War in South African children’s literature and he obtained postgraduate qualifications in History, Cultural History and Museum Science from the Universities of Potchefstroom, Johannesburg, Pretoria and South Africa and a Postgraduate Certificate in Modern Archives Management from the The Royal Archival School in The Hague, Netherlands.
Thomas served three terms on the Board of the International Research Society for Children’s Literature. He is the editor of Mousaion: Journal for Library and Information Science and member of the editorial board of Sankofa a Journal of African Children's and Young Adult Literature, published by Morgan State University, USA.

In addition to his academic work, he is quite involved in community projects. He is a founder and board member of Biblionef South Africa, an organisation that distributes new children’s books at no cost to institutions in need of such books. For many years he has been organising exhibitions of South African children’s books and children’s book illustrations and cultural projects for children in cooperation with South African embassies.

TOPIC: Living in a wetland and dying of thirst - children's perceptions of climate
change at iSimangaliso Wetland Park (WHS)

 

Felicite Fairer-Wessels, holds a PhD in Information Science and taught at the University of South Africa for twenty years. She then held the position of Head of Research at the South African Tourism Board. Since 2003 she has been a senior lecturer at the Department of Tourism Management at the University of Pretoria specializing in Attractions and Events management, Entrepreneurship and Ecotourism. Her passion is rock art and visiting World Heritage Sites.

TOPIC: Living in a wetland and dying of thirst - children's perceptions of climate
change at iSimangaliso Wetland Park (WHS)

Abstract:
A pilot study of the perceptions of a local community in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, an inscribed world Heritage Site since 1999, of climate change.

This wetland park is home to five unique ecosystems but human alterations in the freshwater flows are degrading the park's ecosystems and threatening the long-term survival of the fauna, flora and man. The overharvesting of natural resources by local communities has already seriously depleted the fragile ecosystems.

A pilot project was undertaken (during Sept 2011 using nonprobability convenience sampling) in a particular community consisting of school pupils (primary (11) and secondary (15)), educators (4) and random adults (7); which aimed to establish the level of awareness of environmental issues/climate change, and how the community is dealing with the situation.

Workshop Facilitators

Froilan G. Grate or Kuya Froi as he is commonly called, is an environmental educator and volunteer at heart. He is currently serving as President of Mother Earth Foundation (MEF). Prior to joining MEF, he was the Program Director of the Center for Environmental Awareness and Education where he was first exposed to the transformative power of education, especially as a tool in making people act positively towards the resolution of various environmental issues. He is also the Chairman of Add Up! Volunteers, a group he founded in 2003 with the goal of engaging the youth in active nation building. They have provided volunteer support to MEF and other environmental organizations.

A passionate advocate against the use of plastic, he has not used a single plastic drinking straw or shopping bag in the last four years.

WORKSHOP: Make it Fun: Kids and the Environment

 

Alma Quinto
Alma Quinto is a visual artist-illustrator and training workshop facilitator who works with women and children in marginalized communities all over the Philippines. For more than ten years she has worked with young survivors of abuse at CRIBS Foundation using the visual arts for healing. She is a facilitator for the Artists for Crisis Program of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) doing workshops with communities affected by calamities and internal conflicts. She illustrated two storybooks for children and young adults on the effects of climate change in coastal communities published by World Bank. She is a member of Greenpeace.

Workshop: Art from Discards: Re-imagining Scraps
Using fabric scraps and other discarded materials to create a tapestry of personal stories and struggles and collective advocacy for the environment. Each participant creates a small textile work that can be connected to the works of others, a creative process to engender interaction, collaboration and dialogue toward a more visible and stronger stand on environmental protection.

Panelists

Joy Belmonte Alimurung
Joy Belmonte-Alimurung is the current vice Mayor of Quezon City. She also serves as the Vice Chairperson of the Quezon City Disaster Risk and Reduction Management Committee.

One of Joy's projects as Quezon City Vice Mayor is the development of small vegetable gardens throughout the communities. These gardens aim to promote healthy food choices, as well as contribute to improving the state of the environment by lessening air pollution and eliminating organic wastes.

Panelist, Innovations: Plantsahan ng Bayan and Pocket Gardens

 

Chips Guevara
Chips Guevara is a social entrepreneur currently working on the Veggie Oil Jeepney project, an environmental project that aims to address the air pollution caused by public utility jeepneys or PUJs. His goal in this project is to clean up air pollution, and reduce carbon emissions produced by jeepneys and produce fuel cost savings for the jeepney drivers.

Chips Guevara developed the Veggie Oil Car system (www.veggieoilcar.com.ph), which is a conversion kit that allows diesel engines to run on used cooking oil, which he is currently marketing to jeepney operators, private vehicle owners and light-truck operators. He hopes that one day his technology will spread to a scale where it will make a large impact in terms of reducing the country's carbon footprint and air pollution.

Panelist, Innovations: Veggie Oil Car System

Abstract:
Chips Guevara talks about his dreams of proliferating his Veggie Oil Car technology to thousands of jeepney engines with the objective of cutting down air pollution, producing tremendous fuel savings for jeepney drivers, and reducing the jeepney's carbon footprint to nearly zero. He talks about how the government is being instrumental at helping achieve this goal, and how children, after being educated on Global Warming issues, have taken on an active role in participating on the Veggie Oil Jeepney program.

 

Bryan Mclelland
Bryan, a proud Filipino-American, started to ride a bike when he was 5 years old. When he was cruising down the hill behind the civic center where he learned on his little red bike, he never dreamed that one day he would building bikes, let alone making them out of bamboo. The idea came to him while he was working on his Masters of Environmental Resource Management at the University of Pennsylvania. His thesis was on sustainable community development in the Philippines – working to create the environmental program, now known as Green Kalinga, for Gawad Kalinga. Bryan’s vision for Bambike is to build the greenest bikes on the planet, and to create as many jobs as possible for the people that need them the most.

Abstract:
"BAMBIKE (Bamb EcoLogical Technology Inc.) is a socio-ecological enterprise that hand-makes bamboo bicycles with fair-trade labor and sustainable building practices. Our Bambike builders come from Gawad Kalinga, a Philippine-based community development organization for the poor, working to bring an end to poverty. We are also working on a bamboo nursery for reforestation and have plans for a reef rehabilitation project. Bambike is a company that is interested in helping out people and the planet, dedicated to social and environmental stewardship. Our goal is to do better business and to make the greenest bikes on the planet."

Moderators

Paolo Abrera

Paolo Abrera currently anchors "Mornings@ANC" and hosts "Green Living," both over the ABS-CBN News Channel.

Afternoon Moderator, Day 1

 

Suzi Entrata-Abrera

Suzi Entrata-Abrera hosts "Fulltime Moms" at QTV11 and the morning show "Unang Hirit" at GMA7. She shares a regular column with her husband Paolo in Manila Bulletin's Moms and Babies section. She lists "giving 3 toddlers a bath at the same time" as one of her special skills.

Afternoon Moderator, Day 2

 

 

Maricel Montero

Maricel Montero is a Communication Arts graduate of Ateneo de Manila University. She has been working in the field of social development for more than a decade. She was an educational coordinator and special projects officer for Stairway Foundation and a public relations officer for a health media campaign with ReachOut Foundation International. She also worked as a Project Coordinator for the Global Fund Program on HIV and AIDS with the Tropical Disease Foundation.

In 2001, Maricel joined Museo Pambata as coordinator for the Children's Advocacy Program, an outreach program involving child advocates from disadvantaged areas in Manila. She has been the Executive Director of the Museo Pambata since 2007.

Morning Moderator, Days 1 and 2