National Biodiversity Conservation Priority - Setting Workshop

Welcome to the most exciting region of this country. For those with apprehensions of getting
kidnapped, we assure you of your safety.
I would like to thank the organizing committee in giving me the opportunity to say something
about biodiversity. We live at a time of rapid environmental change, resulting largely from our
own activities, and a consequent rate of habitat loss and species extinction.
As I understand, this workshop is one of the regional meetings we shall have prior to the national
meeting to be held. this December.
There are two major points I would like to make. One is on the meaning of biodiversity and the
second, on the role of science to biodiversity conservation.
Biodiversity as traditionally defined is the sum total of all biotic variation from the level of genes
to ecosystems. The challenge comes in measuring such a broad concept in ways that are useful
for conservation.
The measure of biodiversity relies on the definition of evolutionary units called species. Because
species are constantly evolving entities, biodiversity should also be viewed under the light of
evolution. If this is the case, then biodiversity cannot be reduced to a single number, such as
species richness. This is the challenge that the participants of this workshop will face, because
species accounting is what policy makers want.
There are new perspectives emerging. Phylogenetic and temporal analyses are shedding light on
the ecological and evolutionary processes that have shaped current biodiversity, a vital question
now being tackled is how badly this loss affects ecosystem functioning. It is said that based on
the rate of the discovery of new species, the roughly 1.75 million described species of organism
may be only around 10°/o of the total.
This number may multiply, not only due to discoveries of new life forms, but the emerging
popularity of other species concepts- like phylogenetic species concepts (PSC)- can drastically
stretch established taxonomic settings.
For example, there are roughly 500 species of Philippine birds. But a widespread recognition of
the PSC can increase the total number of species to almost double.
The other emerging tool is the use of genomic characters, which offers new insights to
biodiversity at the most fundamental level. This discipline is yet to reveal that what we are losing
from irreversible extinction is far more precious than we presently realize.
Coupled with the explosion of phylogenetic studies, these tools will not only provide a clear
picture of biodiversity today, but also allow us to make inferences about how the diversity has
come about.
Third, the application of computer databases and the internet in database. This technology is
providing a decentralized and 'democratic' way of sharing information, a system of coordination
similar to genomic systems in many ways.