"The best advocates dream with their heads in the clouds, but keep their feet on the ground," Gregg Yan, an award-winning advocacy communicator and campaigner recently told an engaged crowd of around 100 researchers, professionals, high school and college students here in UP Los Banos.

Gregg Yan is the founder and current director of Best Alternatives, an environmental communications think-tank which publicizes solutions to various fields, and the special guest speaker of the Department of Development Journalism (DDJ) Workshop Series' session on writing on biodiversity held at the ICOPED Auditorium last 10 September 2018.

"That is why we have to know and appreciate that aside from telling stories that are easily understood by any audience, the job of an environmental communicator is to tell biodiversity-related stories from the heart," Yan said in an interview.

After 12 days of tests, lectures, practical exercises, field observations, reviews and memorization, 53 personnel from the regional offices of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) as well as its Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB) were able to hurdle a difficult final exam last 28 August to complete the "Training on Wildlife Conservation and Management: Species Identification, Handling and Management Techniques (Session on Birds)."

The training was held from 15 to 28 August 2018 at SEARCA, UPLB, College, Laguna for the environment department by the BMB with funding from the USAID Protect Widlife Project and expert assistance from the UPLB Museum of Natural History (MNH). According to training lead resource person and MNH Director Dr. Juan Carlos T. Gonzalez, "the course was designed to enhance the participants' understanding and knowledge of bird diversity in the Philippines and be further trained in identifying birds through taxonomic characters."

Museum of Natural History extension personnel Florante Cruz and James Alvarez served as resources persons of the National Crop Protection Center's (NCPC) seminar-training on developing photo collections last 31 August 2018 at the OVCRE Annex Building.

During the training's morning session, James taught the participants how to use a simple but powerful photo viewer and organizer for editing, categorizing, and organizing offline photo collections and albums. Florante Cruz led the participants' hands-on exercises in the afternoon wherein they were able to make online several collaborative private photocollections as well as public galleries using the Google Suite of applications.

The extension section of the museum has been doing a lot of public service activities for other units of the university, and even for students. For this year alone, the MNH has conducted free training-workshops such as using software for molecular phylogenetic analyses, a beginner course on biological photography, a tutorial on building online e-portfolios and a few special seminars requested by organizations.

Around 50 participants of the second session of the two-week “Training on Wildlife Conservation and Management” engaged in birdwatching last August 24, 2018 at the College of Forestry and Natural Resources campus. The activity was part of the training designed to increase the DENR’s regional wildlife protection officers’ recognition of birds in their natural habitat.

With the help of staff and volunteers of the UPLB Museum of Natural History, trainees tried to identify different bird species observed in the Mount Makiling Forest Reserve. As early as five o'clock in the morning, the trainees gathered at the Museum of Natural History to start their hike through several observation stations determined by the Museum personnel. The activity was to be done very early since most birds are typically more active after sunrise. Some of the stations included the CFNR Arbor Square, UPLB-EDC Binhi Biodiversity Park, the TREES parking lot and the several areas inside the Makiling Botanic Garden.

Museum curator for small mammals Prof. Phillip A. Alviola, junior researcher James DV. Alvarez and two former MNH thesis students in the persons of Frex Dimaculangan and Daniel Dave Bernaldez represented the Museum during the 4th Southeast Asian Bat Conferene (SEABCO) held last 6-9 August 2018 at the L'Fisher Hotel, Bacolod City, Negros Occidental

SEABCO 2018 is an international conference initiated by the Southeast Asian Bat Conservation and Research Unit (SEABCRU) in partnership with the Philippines Biodiversity Conservation Foundation, Inc. (PBCFI). The conference convened bat researchers, experts, conservationists and students from over 14 countries worldwide, mostly from the southeast Asian region.

The conference included student and expert presentations on seven different themes: species diversity and monitoring surveys, cave bat ecology and conservation, bats in disturbed landscapes, acoustics, bat-plant interactions and flying fox conservation, bat-arthropod interactions, and taxonomy, systematics and evolution. Posters on different aspects of bat taxonomy and ecology were also presented.

Around fifty personnel from the 13 regional offices of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) as well as the DENR-Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB) are now attending a "Training on Wildlife Conservation and Management: Species Identification, Handling and Management Techniques of Amphibians and Reptiles with the assistance of curators, staff and students affiliated with the UPLB Museum of Natural History (MNH).

The training, being held by the DENR-BMB with the generous funding support of the USAID Wildlife Protect Project, commenced last 31 July at the SEAMEO-SEARCA headquarters here in UPLB, College, Laguna will conclude in two weeks.