Los Baños environmental crusader gets Metrobank award

University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) School of Environmental Science and Management professor Dr. Decibel V. Faustino-Eslava adds another feather in her cap.

The distinguished geologist, who is also the curator for special collections at the UPLB Museum of Natural History and with expertise in climate change impacts, adaptation and disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM), bio-geology, environmental geology, geologic hazards, geochemistry, paleomagnetism and tectonics, is among this year’s 2024 Metrobank Foundation Outstanding Filipinos (MFOF). Metrobank Foundation Inc. is giving her the MFOF Award in a ceremony on 4 September at The Grand Ballroom Grand Hyatt Manila, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.

The 2024 MFOF Award is in recognition of her significant contributions such as mentoring and inspiring students and staff through teaching, conducting impactful research, and extension services. She has also shown exemplary leadership skills through her contributions to environmental science.

With her work on DRRM, Eslava was recently recognized as one of six finalists, out of 425 nominations, for the 2023 Women’s International Network for DRRM (WIN DRRM) Excellence Award. The WIN DRRM is the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction’s flagship women’s leadership initiative.

Eslava provides guidance to holistic environmental management approaches to ensure effective protection, rehabilitation and enhancement of our ecosystems. One of her projects was Smarter Approaches to Reinvigorate Agriculture as an Industry in the Philippines, an action research on smarter agriculture, developed traditional and non-conventional methods for effective knowledge and skills dissemination.

She was also behind the Landslide Investigations on Geohazards preparedness and Timely Advisories in the Philippines, a national landslide database that is now integrated into the GeoRiskPH of the Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.

She also leads the research on the impacts of mining activities on watersheds in the country.

In 2023, UPLB-SESAM launched a pioneering PhD program in Environmental Diplomacy and Negotiations, the first in Southeast Asia, where Eslava is one of the core faculty members.

Meanwhile, the other educators receiving the 2024 MFOF Award are Ma. Ella F. Fabella, Master Teacher II at Maasin Learning Center in Zamboanga City; Franco Rino C. Apoyon, Head Teacher II at Kabasalan National High School in Kabasalan, Zamboanga Sibugay; and Maria Regina M. Hechanova-Alampay, Ph.D., professor at Ateneo de Manila University in Quezon City.