The University of the Philippines Visayas Oil Spill Response Program conducted a seminar on the Formation of Research Center on Control Against Negative Impacts to Coastal Fisheries resources in Southeast Asia at the Iloilo Grand Hotel last Nov. 24, 2012.

The seminar also coincided with the closing of the Core University Program of the Department of Science and technology – Japan Society for the Promotion of Sciences (DOST-JSPS) which ran from 2008-2012.

The collaboration involved conduct of studies on the effects and treatment of the negative impacts on fisheries for the management and preservation of resources and environments in Southeast Asia coasts.

The seminar served as a review process and synthesized the results of studies of researchers from UP Visayas and the Kagoshima University in Japan.

UPV Chancellor Rommel Espinosa emphasized about the friendship that formed through the years of collaborative work after the bulk of output that have come out of the collaborations.

As the Core University Program is coming to a close, the Chancellor also revealed that UPV is also starting research collaboration with the Research Institute on Humanity and Nature (RIHN), entitled, “Coastal Area Capability Enhancement in Southeast Asia.”

RIHN was established in 2012 by the Government of Japan promote an integrated cooperative research toward the solution of global environmental problems’ and to create the field of global environmental studies.* Anna Razel L. Ramirez