The Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) recently participated in the data/statistical analysis and interpretation training of the Philippine Wealth Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services (Phil-WAVES) Project in support to the on-going development of ecosystem account for Southern Palawan.

The WAVES Project is a trust-funded partnership between the Government of the Philippines and the World Bank that is aimed at promoting sustainable development through wealth accounting. It is focused on the value of natural capital and integration of "green accounting" in more conventional development planning analysis.

The three-day training aims to train members of Laguna de Bay Region and Southern Palawan Phil-WAVES technical working group (TWG) on data analysis and interpretation of survey data, produce summary outputs tables of fisheries survey, and develop and interpret output tables produced from analysis of survey entries.

The said training is designed for the capacity building of Phil-WAVES TWG members as well as producing outputs based on actual data from survey to be used in developing the ecosystem production account for fisheries in Laguna de Bay basin.

TWG members of Southern Palawan were taught how utilize techniques and tools such as basic computer softwares and other statistical packages that will be applied to different sets of data to be produced for Sofronio Espanola in Southern Palawan.

World Bank consultant Dr. Gem Catillo served as the main resource person of the event. Dr. Castillo guided the participants in processing data sets from the Laguna Lake Development Authority fisheries survey to be used for the preparation of ecosystem production account in fisheries.

Technical personnel from the Mineral Economics, Information and Publications Division of the MGB participated in the event held on May 26-28, 2015 at the Tagaytay Haven Hotel, East Crossing West Mendez, Tagaytay City.

By: Mineral Economics, Information and Publications Division