The biodiversity conservation workshop and stakeholders’ consultation marked the conclusion of the three-day international conference on cultural studies on February 28, 2025, at the SMU Sacred Heart Center. During the opening remarks, Dr. Sheryl Yap briefly mentioned Indigenous peoples and biodiversity conservation from the lens of orthoptera by emphasizing that the workshop investigates integrating indigenous knowledge and systems to address biodiversity loss. She also provided a few insights about the stakeholders’ consultation.

Dr. Ming Kai Tan, a curator at the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum, National University of Singapore, discussed the importance of taxonomy during the workshop by saying that it can be a basis for other research and biodiversity conservation fields. However, as much as there are opportunities, like attempts to improve bioinformatics and orthoptera files, there are challenges, such as specimens that are not readily available. The core idea of the workshop’s first part can be summarized through Ming Kai Tan’s statement, “We can’t protect what we don’t know. We can’t protect what we don’t love. We can’t love what we don’t know”.

The second part of the workshop emphasized the role of indigenous knowledge and science in addressing biodiversity loss. It mentioned that addressing biodiversity loss is a two-way knowledge exchange. There must be an Indigenous presence in scientific literature, such as acknowledging the locals or Indigenous peoples in academic papers and using local languages in scientific names, like naming species after Indigenous groups. Lastly, Dr. Ming Kai Tan reiterated the importance of transforming science into policies and enumerated some Philippine laws that support biodiversity conservation.

A stakeholders’ consultation took place after the workshop. Dr. Yap facilitated the exchange of ideas after she presented possible collaborative research entitled BaNTAY-Kalanguya-Ikalahan: Balanced Nature, Tradition, and Technology Collective Project in Preserving Cultural Heritage and Ecosystems for Kalanguya-Ikalahan Ancestral Domain. During the consultation, the participants emphasized the need to involve the Kalanguya-Indigenous cultural communities as co-researchers.

In his words of gratitude, Dr. Christopher Allen S. Marquez also mentioned possible future directions of the International Conference on Cultural Studies.

Written by: Christopher Allen Marquez(Head, CEIPCS)
Photos by: Paul Jasper Cadiz, TC