HISTORY

The movement towards environmental concern came about when global and national concern on the environmental degradation and decay occurred as a result of human society’s march towards economic development over the past decades.

In response to the national move to create environmental code and policy in 1977, the University of the Philippines Los Baños pioneered a multidisciplinary effort to address the environmental degradation through the establishment of the Program on Environmental Science and Management (PESAM). PESAM was established under the Office of the Chancellor with funding support from the Ford Foundation. It is an institution-building program which aims to develop the discipline of environmental science parallel with that of the Upland Hydroecology Program (UHP), a multidisciplinary research program.

When UHP terminated in 1981, PESAM continued its research mandate together with an academic offering in 1984 of the Master of Environmental Studies (MSES) Program. PESAM pioneered in the development and testing methodologies and approaches for sustainable management of upland resources. Among the methodologies popularized by UPLB through PESAM’s research and extension program are Agroecosystem Analysis (AE), Rapid Rural Systems Appraisal (RRSA), Assisted Natural Regeneration (ANR), Strategic Environmental Planning and Modelling and the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).

VISION

A center of excellence in the fields of environmental science and environmental management, consistent with the aspirations of the Filipino people, in a manner that fully respects the limits of nature.

MISSION

1. Coordinate and consolidate university wide efforts to develop and offer higher academic degrees on environmental science and management.
2. Consolidate a wide variety of talents and expertise of its core staff, the university, and other sectors of civil society, to pursue scientific investigation on environment through system of collaboration and partnership.
3. Complement and enhance the existing traditional strengths of the university to offer the Filipino people with technical services that promote the sustainable management of the environmental resources.
4. Engage in active science, policy and community dialogues/forum to ensure that our science becomes a significant input to sustainable development.

STRUCTURE

Environmental Science...

As a School

Environmental Science as a school is an interdisciplinary faculty of the basic and applied disciplines of agriculture, biology, forestry, sociology, anthropology, mathematics and statistics, geology, meteorology, soil science and other related fields (Figure 1).

As a discipline

Environmental Science as a discipline integrates the applied elements of empirical disciplines to analyze, explain and find solution to environmental problems. It focuses on understanding the dynamics of environmental issues arising from the interaction of human population and the biophysical environment. While the different units existing in the university share common interest over the environment, the areas of their concern are limited with their expert domain e.g., agriculture, food production, forestry, forest products, engineering, infrastructure and others.

As an integrative science

Environmental Science is an integrative science. It involved the participation of various expert domains from the natural, social, humanities and engineering sciences in a broad holistic view of the environment (Figure 2). It is mission-oriented science that seeks to understand the totality of the environment and human society. The multi- and inter-disciplinary approach has been the cornerstone of UPLB’s Environmental Science Program for the past three decades.

SESAM as a common ground

SESAM is crucial as a common ground and platform for bringing together different disciplines to bear on critical environmental problems and its solutions (Figure 3). It creates enhanced awareness through its advocacy and collaborative network on the importance of understanding complex systems and phenomena dealing with the environment. Indicative of this new awareness is the offering of new courses which highlight environmental issues.