546 
THE CORAL TRIANGLE: HEARST BIODIVERSITY EXPEDITION 
Table 5: Memoranda of Understanding and Agreement between the California Academy of 
Sciences and various Filipino and international partners and agencies to support research, educa¬ 
tion and conservation of Philippine natural resources; presented in alphabetical order within each 
section. 
In place before, and continuing beyond, the 2011 Philippine Biodiversity Expedition: 
Philippine Bm eau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) 
Philippine Science Centrum 
Pusod, Inc. 
Created for the expedition and continuing: 
Ateneo de Naga University 
Department of Agriculture of the Republic of the Philippines 
Department of Environment and Natural Resources of tlie Republic of the Philippines (DENR), including 
the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau (PAWB) and the Regional Offices of the DENR. 
National Museum of the Philippines 
University of the Philippines System (all campuses) 
Completed since the expedition, and continuing: 
ABS-CBN Foundation, U.S. and Philippines 
Conservation International 
May 9, 2011: University of Santo Tomas, Manila 
The day after their arrival in the Philippines, Burke and Brett, assisted by Salcedo and Pusod 
Project Assistant Jovell Castillo, led an all-day professional development workshop for 76 univer¬ 
sity faculty, graduate students, and high school educators at the University of Santo Tomas, the old¬ 
est university in Asia. Entitled “Biodiversity Assessment and Conservation: The Heai*st Expedi¬ 
tion,” the workshop included an overview of CAS and the expedition, content and hands-on activ¬ 
ities related to tropical forests in general and Philippine forest in particular, and content and hands- 
on activities related to coral reefs in general and Philippine reefs in particular. The fact that the 
Philippines is both a terrestrial and marine biodiversity hotspot, with less than 10% of the Philip¬ 
pines’ primary forests remaining and is the center of the center of coral reef diversity, makes for a 
compelling story and intense interest. In one activity (Carbon Cycle Role Play), participants 
exchanged ping pong balls representing cai'bon atoms cycling through the biotic and abiotic com¬ 
ponents of an ecosystem, to better understand the carbon cycle, climate change and what is meant 
by “carbon footprints,” as well as the role of forests in the carbon cycle and climate change. In 
another activity, participants were asked to make careful observations of marine bivalve shells and 
record as many details of the external moiphology as possible (see Fig. 4). They then placed all of 
the similar looking shells in a large pile and were asked to find their shell based on the description 
they had made of it. The shell activity helped participants better understand the scientific process 
and the unportance of careful observation in the describing and naming of new species, a major 
focus of the expedition. Tropical Storm Bebeng prevented 40 other registered participants from 
other provinces and islands from attending. 
May 11, 2011: Taal Lake, Talisay, Batangas Province 
At Taal Lake, the education team and CAS and Filipino researchers presented to a group of 33 
elementary school teachers and local government officials, including the mayor of Talisay, one of 
