PhD candidate receives Yale award

A PhD candidate has received a prestigious award from Yale University in the USA for a program promoting biodiversity conservation in the Philippines.

Jayson Ibanez received the Second Place award in the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies Innovation Prize for a program that collaborated with Indigenous villages in the Philippines.

The Philippine Eagle Foundation’s Arakan Forest Corridor Development Program aims to help villages achieve sustainable development through forest management, poverty relief, resource mobilisation, local capacity building, advocacy and education.

“I hope to continue working with Indigenous peoples in the southern Philippines,” Mr Ibanez said.

“I wish to help improve the quality of life in remote and marginalised Indigenous villages while conserving our biological resources.”

Mr Ibanez began his PhD at CDU in 2010, after receiving an Australia Awards Scholarship from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. He said the scholarship provided him with a rare opportunity to grow both professionally and personally.

Mr Ibanez is currently the director for research and conservation at the Philippine Eagle Foundation in Davao City in the Philippines.