A new Biological Specimen Storage Facility has opened in Barangay Irawan to preserve the city’s unique biodiversity and serve as an educational hub for students, researchers, and local communities.
The city government of Puerto Princesa, through the City Environment and Natural Resources Office (City ENRO), in cooperation with the National Institute of Biodiversity Research (NIBR) of the Republic of Korea, inaugurated the facility today, September 25.
The City ENRO said the storage facility will serve as a repository of various biological specimens that represent the city’s unique biodiversity, most of which were collected from the CNCH.
These are slated for long-term scientific preservation and will also serve as a dynamic educational hub to connect students, visitors, and local communities for deeper engagement and understanding of science, particularly biodiversity.
In her message during the inauguration, NIBR President Ho Yu said the facility is a product of collective and collaborative research between the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and NIBR that was conceived through a Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2018.
“As a result of the joint research, it became possible to collect and identify 4,000 species and publish to illustrate in a book and share over 500 specimens in a storage room (here),” Ho said.
She also expressed gratitude to their partners in the research and to the different government agencies that supported the project, noting that the inauguration of the facility will not be the end of the partnership but will “further strengthen biodiversity cooperation between our countries.”
Assistant City ENR Officer Angel Madriñan explained that the research project that led to the establishment of the storage facility was initiated by the NIBR through the MOU with the DENR and the University of the Philippines Los Baños, with Palawan and Puerto Princesa City serving as the study site.
Researchers collected samples of flora and fauna at the CNCH for study and analysis.
Madriñan added that after the study, the NIBR wanted to bring the specimens back to Puerto Princesa City but needed a repository, which led to the construction of the storage facility.
