Five graduate students taking up the Professional Masters in Tropical Marine Ecosystem Management (TMEM) in the Philippines took 16-hour subject on ComDev planning. Each of them produced a skeletal communication plan that addresses an immediate concern in their respective marine ecosystem: illegal fishing, habitat degradation, whale conservation, and protection of seagrass ecosystem among others.
The Comdev subject was made part of a 1.5-year postgraduate academic program in the Philippines focused on the capacity building of professionals in the effective management and good governance of tropical marine ecosystems and its natural resources. It is designed for mid-level TMEM practitioners with an emphasis on hands-on exposure.
Being mostly managers of protected areas in the country, the students find communication as a new skill worth learning that could significantly improve the way they carry out their work.
The FAO Communication for Rural Development Sourcebook was used as the main reference for the subject.
Resource persons for the ComDev course were Cleofe Torres and Ma Stella Tirol, faculty from the College of Development Communication, UP Los Banos, who were co-authors of the sourcebook.
The off-campus program is being implemented through the collaboration of constituent universities within the UP System: UP Diliman, UP Los Baños, and UP Visayas.