Interview with TIME Hero of the Environment Jurgenne Primavera

[GLT]

http://www.femalenetwork.com/news-features/dr-jurgenne-honculadaprimavera-environmental-champion-and-heroine

April 14, 2010
FN Exclusive: Interview with TIME Hero of the Environment Jurgenne
Primavera
Honored by TIME in 2008, this marine scientist's work toward
sustainable aquaculture has not stopped there. By Liana Smith-Bautista

Dr. Jurgenne Honculada-Primavera (her first name is pronounced
“Georgine”; she and her twin, Georgette, share a birthday with George
Washington). Dr. Primavera holds BS and MA degrees in zoology and a
PhD in marine science. In 2008, Time Magazine awarded her the title of
Hero of the Environment for her work in promoting sustainable fish-
farming, or aquaculture. She also received a Pew Fellowship in Marine
Conservation from 2005 to 2010, for which she worked toward conserving
mangroves through formal education and local governance.

Aquaculture, or aquafarming, involves farming freshwater and / or
saltwater organisms such as fish, shrimp, oysters, and seaweed.
Mangroves, on the other hand, are trees and shrubs that have adapted
to being exposed to salt water, growing in areas along our coasts or
in estuaries. They protect coastal habitats from erosion, storm
surges, and even tidal waves and serve as “nurseries” for marine life
such as some species of shrimp, lobsters, crabs, and fish, offering a
safe place where young organisms can thrive. By focusing her attention
on these ecosystems, Dr. Primavera is helping further marine
biodiversity, an important part of the overall conservation effort.

Dr. Primavera has successfully balanced a robust family life with her
scientific career: while working to inspire younger generations of
scientists and thinkers and teaching students and local government
units about the importance of sustainable living, she and her husband,
Nick, raised four children, all of whom are now pursuing their own
passions and advocacies. Despite what she calls a very laissez-faire
or hands-off attitude when it comes to picking her children’s careers,
two are following in their mother’s footsteps: Yasmin, the eldest, has
BS and MS degrees in marine fisheries and is working on a PhD, and
second son Karlo, a certified chemist with a Master’s degree in marine
chemistry is teaching at the UP Visayas, while eldest son Nikos, a
Sociology-Management graduate, takes charge of rehabilitating a mini-
forest and Jorge, the youngest, with MS degrees in international
development and economic history, will soon pursue a PhD in Kyoto
University.

Female Network was given the opportunity to interview Dr. Primavera,
who had a lot of advice and insights to share about life, work,
passions, and environmental awareness.


LIFE AND PASSIONS


Female Network (FN): How did your childhood in Agusan del Norte,
Mindanao, factor into your interest in the environment?

Dr. Jurgenne Primavera (JP): My environmental bias goes back to a
childhood imprinted on macopa, tambis, arabana, sirali, mangga, and
other species of tropical fruit trees in our Buenavista, Agusan
backyard. I used to climb our balingbing with a fistful of salt in one
hand, the better to have merienda when I got to the top—even at 63, I
still climb trees.


FN: What influenced your choice to take up zoology and marine science?

JP: What I really wanted to take was chemical engineering when I first
arrived at UP Diliman. My next choice was pre-medicine, but it
[wasn’t on the list of allowed courses for NSDB (National Science
Development Board)], so I had to settle for zoology, which was close
enough to pre-med. My reasoning was that, in case I lost my
scholarship, a degree in zoology could still provide entry to the
College of Medicine.

No such thing happened because I maintained the scholarship…, finished
my zoology degree, and was offered an instructor’s position at the
Mindanao State University, where I taught college zoology and biology
courses. Later, I earned a master’s in zoology along the way and
finally a PhD in marine science.


FN: Have you ever regretted not being able to pursue your first and
second choices?

JP: No! I was drawn to both chemical engineering and medicine because
they were the “glamorous” professions of my time. Being of an
impressionable age, my reasons for choosing a college program were
quite mababaw (shallow). However shallow the choice, I have spent the
rest of my life making it the right one.


FN: How did you balance your work and family life? What challenges did
you face to do so, and how did you overcome them?

JP: As a [woman] who has tried to balance a lifetime of household
duties and career needs, this is my advice to the females based on my
experience: If you plan to concentrate on your profession and remain
single—no conflicts and no problem! But if you want to have a family,
look for a man who is secure in his own identity and liberated enough
to share in household duties.

I have been lucky to find such a man who has accepted more than his
fair share of babysitting, laundry, dishwashing, marketing, and other
chores, except for cooking—because he can only cook one item, and that
is water. Another factor in my favor is the continuing availability of
nannies and household helpers from my first baby to the present.


FN: And if others are not as lucky as you in finding a supportive
partner?

JP: If the demands of family and work compete for your time, give
priority to your home, especially your children. They did not ask to
be born; you brought them into this world and are therefore
responsible for their wellbeing. Go on leave whenever they get sick or
there is a PTA meeting.

Once [they’re older], you can return to your career. Remember that to
these young children, you, their mother, are everything—the sun, moon,
and stars. So give them your time and yourself because soon enough,
before you know it, they will leave you. A temporary break in your
professional development is a small price to pay for producing
physically and psychologically healthy human beings. As they say,
there is no substitute for success in the home.


womanity_primavera_efernando.jpgFN: What do you do when you’re not
pursuing your advocacy, seeing to your family’s needs, or inspiring
young scientific minds?

JP: My pastime is planting seeds or wildings of native species in a
home nursery, growing them…, then out-planting them to a miniforest or
to public places like churchyards and school campuses.

My family has revived a mini-forest over the past 15 years in Miag-ao,
and started to reforest another three-hectare area in Oton, both in
Iloilo provinces. Everyone [was] fully engaged in these projects—from
clearing weeds to transplanting seedlings and saplings, building tree
guards, adding fertilizers, and regular watering…. Now it is a
veritable forest of dao, dangcal, dita, and other unidentified species
of native trees.

Planting is an act of hope and faith, faith that the seeds we sow will
grow to maturity, yielding an infinite array of goods and services in
their own time. Planting is also an act of unselfishness, for we do
not plant for ourselves but for our children, our children’s children,
and the generations after them who will reap what we sow.


womanity_primavera_dost.jpgWORK AND PROJECTS


FN: What first got you interested in fish-farming and mangroves? Did
your interest in mangroves stem from your interest in aquaculture?

JP: [While conducting research] at SEAFDEC/AQD (the Aquaculture
Department of the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center, where
Dr. Primavera worked after her nearly 10-year-long career as a
professor at the Mindanao State University), … I would notice
ubiquitous, strange-looking trees lining [the] margins [of the culture
ponds], which turned out to be mangroves! Eventually, I realized that
these marginalized trees were all that remained of mangrove forests
that had been clear-cut for pond development. Given my early
imprinting on trees, I soon became a champion and defender of
mangroves.


FN: Why worry about mangrove loss?

JP: Healthy mangroves regulate floods, control erosion, recycle
nutrients, trap sediments, and provide fishery and forest products.
Mangroves also have cultural-historical significance. The premier
Philippine city of Manila or Maynila owes its name to the species
Scyphiphora hydrophyllacea, locally called nilad, which grew
abundantly along Manila Bay and the river Pasig in pre-Hispanic times.

Studies… show that the presence of mangrove-beach forest greenbelts
mitigated the loss of lives and property during the horrific 2004
tsunami. [They also lessen the impact of typhoons], which visit the
Philippines at the rate of 20 to 30 each year, causing hundreds of
deaths and millions of pesos in damage.


FN: Time Magazine awarded you the title of Hero of the Environment
back in 2008, citing you as an eco-pioneer for your campaign to
institute sustainable fish-farming through the protection of
mangroves. Can you tell us a little about how your work affects
people, from your local fisher folk to even those of us in urban
centers?

JP: My efforts at mangrove conservation entered a... [phase] of on-the-
ground advocacy with support from the Pew Fellowship and the
Zoological Society of London.... Awareness of mangrove importance and
mangrove issues has increased with my media exposure (print,
television, radio, and the Internet). Also, I give dozens of lectures
and talks each year to schools, universities, civic clubs (e.g.,
Rotary), NGOs, and community organizations, etc., mainly on mangrove
topics (conservation, management, and rehabilitation), but also on
beach forests, native trees, and climate change.

Mangroves provide a wide array of goods and services, including
coastal protection, shoreline protection, flood regulation, fish/
invertebrate nurseries, [and] wildlife habitat. Therefore, conserving
and restoring mangroves will mean making these goods and services,
particularly protection from typhoons and storm surges, available to
coastal towns and villages, improving fisheries’ catches and incomes
of fishers and providing food security for all—including urban
dwellers.


FN: What are your recent or current projects or endeavors in your
promotion of mangrove protection?

JP: Recently, I was named project manager of the four-year Community-
Based Mangrove Rehabilitation and Management Project (CMRP) of the
Zoological Society of London (ZSL). The CMRP supports coastal
communities to re-establish the legally mandated mangrove greenbelts
along the coast and rehabilitate abandoned government-leased fishponds
and degraded nipa palm stands to healthy mangrove forests.... [This
increases] coastal protection, food resources, and livelihood income
through sustainable mangrove management; and decreases their
vulnerability to coastal erosion and storm surges.

My earlier …fellowship aims to conserve mangroves in Panay through
formal education (mangrove thesis grants to high school and college
students, development of modules and other educational materials, and
also posters, leaflets, and mangrove identification sheets) and local
governance (protection of mangroves and increased enforcement of
greenbelt and pond reversion regulations). My website (http://
www.seafdec.org.ph/pew) features written and pictorial reports of
these initiatives, and also my other professional and personal
activities, e.g., home nursery.


ADVICE AND THE FUTURE


FN: You are a mother of four, and you’ve also been a mentor and
inspiration to younger scientists. What advice can you give younger
generations of scientists and environmentalists, as well as those in
non-scientific fields?

JP: During the many talks that I give, I try to share the following
lessons in life with young (and not-so-young) people in the audience:
Making the right choice may not be as important as making the choice
right, when you are young and time is on your side. This applies to
marriage as well [as your career], as they are not made in heaven,
never mind what others tell you. My husband and I will soon celebrate
our 43rd wedding anniversary, but it has been a day-by-day effort to
nurture the relationship and keep it strong.

Many of [your] readers will probably go abroad… To you, I say go, but
come back once you have finished your PhD or made enough money to
build a house, buy a car, and send your children to college. To those
who remain but become call center employees, after you earn lots of
money, go back to what you trained for and make a contribution,
whether in fisheries or economics or biology or mass communications.
Then you will put a lie to last year’s Hong Kong column of Chip Tsao
calling the Philippines a “nation of servants” and vindicate the faith
of… Jose Rizal, in you as the hope of the Mother and Fatherland.


womanity_primavera_wcequina.jpgFN: What advice can you give to parents
who are trying to teach their kids—and possibly themselves—to develop
more environmentally conscious attitudes, especially if they weren’t
raised with an eco-friendly mindset?

JP: Explore your backyard, if you have one, [show them] insects
(grasshoppers, ants, termites), spiders, larvae, and cocoons (to
illustrate life cycles). This I do with my two apos every chance we
get. If you have no backyard, the closest zoo or park will do.

Plant a seed in your backyard or even just a recycled container (empty
cans, plastic bags, aluminum), care for it, water [it] regularly, and
watch how the seed pops out of the soil.

Take your children on picnics (field trips) to the beach—the sea
strand has shells, seaweeds, stranded starfishes/jellyfish/ crabs,
molted shells of crabs and shrimps, and also garbage—[or a] forest or
eco-park—aside from animals, look at trees and other plants.

Get a pet dog or cat (kids should be non-allergic to hairs), to
develop affinity with other creatures.

If TV is unavoidable, then proactively develop good viewing habits by
encouraging such programs as [those on] Discovery, National
Geographic, etc., but regulate viewing hours. View [them] together...
so you can fill in when terms are too technical for the younger kids.

At home, segregate garbage, maintain a compost pit for biodegradable
items, and sell old paper, bottles, [and] metals to the junk man.


FN: What’s next for you, both in terms of your life and career?

JP: Travel in my own country—the best places for travel are in these
beloved islands where the air is warm and the waters warmer, the skies
are bluest, and the white sand beaches finest. I used to be like some
Filipino children who said in a survey that they wanted to be
foreigners when they grow up. Like them, I was trapped in a mental
colony (what others call a colonial mentality)—dreaming of a white
Christmas, dashing through the snow amidst redwood forests, when all
the while Paradise was at my doorstep, and not half a world away.

Local talks—I used to travel eight to ten times abroad in a year,
until I asked myself, “Wait a minute, why am I preaching about
mangrove conservation to Europeans and North Americans who have not
even seen a single mangrove tree (except Florida)?” So I have decided
to prioritize local invitations... and share with my kababayans a
lifetime of science and environmentalism.