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Palawan Environmental and Marine Studies Center
THE CENTER | ECO-TOURS | THE REGION The Staff
Caril RidleyPEMS Founder Caril became interested in the islands of northern Palawan during a solo bangka voyage in 1977. An American commissioner of parks and recreation, regional community planner and president for business and recreational organizations in Washington State Caril Ridley is best known for helping a thousand otherwise homeless people re-build their lives. As community planner, psychologist and cultural anthropologist she has traveled across fifty countries designing communities with an eye on the future and believes there is no place on earth more beautiful than Palawan, no place with more potential for eco tourism but few places with greater social, cultural and environmental issues needing to be addressed. Caril’s PEMS program is designed to draw international attention to Palawan’s environmental and social concerns while presenting alternatives to the countries of Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas. She says “PEMS location in Palawan as a corporate conferencing destination and environmental education center will attract attention to issues threw-out the world, drawing national and international resources to help preserve pristine wilderness and more importantly reflect the environmental needs of a growing Asia“. She recognizes East Asian Economic Groups are beginning to pool resources and understands their need to find a central location for conferencing as they address the important issues of broader Asia. She says locating an eco-economic conferencing center among some of the most beautiful islands in the world will be like attracting bees to honey and the nature of Palawan’s environmental delicacy will follow them home to influence growth, local management and regional environmental policy. For most people Caril Ridley is the visionary, a successful business and planning leader, for many she is the person who made history in India and then again in Peru, for others she is the Olympic trained kayaker, athlete and author but for her family and the people who know her best she is the one who cares so deeply and helps so many with a passion for creating, and making things right. Caril is also known for building urban and wilderness trails. In her words “Trails serve to connect people with each other, with their communities, with their primal natures and with their natural environments” Caril builds trails more than metaphors, she builds trails that people can follow.
Dr. Priest is currently an academic administrator and business entrepreneur, who brings his unique brand of leadership and management to all Palawan projects. Simon is also a retired university professor who has taught in several dozen countries around the world. As an international authority on environmental studies, outdoor education, adventure programming, experiential learning, research and statistics, his consulting advise proves extremely valuable for PEMS. He presently consults in facilitation training, E-learning, and executive development for a handful of progressive companies interested in staying ahead of their global competition by focusing on facilitative leadership and online learning.
Books by Simon Priest:
In addition to co-founding "Environmental three" Devon Ridley is the founder and CEO of "Young Entrepreneurs International" (YEI), a growing network offering resources for young business people around the world. He has lectured thousands of business students and officials across the United States and China addressing issues of networking and leadership. His speaking engagements include DECA Regional Conference's and Business Week competitions in the western and midwestern regions of the United States, and the International Career Development Convention in Atlanta. He has been hosted by The Peoples Republic of China, lectured the value of international networking highlighting opportunities between China and the US, and addressed Model UN representatives in Beijing. He has visited more than twenty countries on four continents and in 2008 was elected to represent the US Democratic party as a delegate at the Washington State Caucasus, campaigning enthusiastically for Barack Obama. Devon has traveled around-the-world expanding his YEI membership, refining his internet resources in Hyderabad and looks forward to highlighting Palawan as one of Asia's environmental conferencing centers. Devon has been an honors student and deans listed at the University of Washington where he pursues degrees in Business, International Studies, and Innovation and Entrepreneurship. He has worked to create an Alaskan Environmental and Cultural Center and surveyed Southwest Alaskan Islands to develop a cruise ships destination, and is presently surveying potential cruise destinations among the paradisiacal Islands of Palawan on the cusp of the South China and Sulu Seas. Devon is interested in social-entrepreneurship and with this interest he intends to develop a business plan that will help attract and create cruise ship destinations in Palawan. Web sites: www.youngentrepreneursinternational.com www.environmentalthree.com
Rannie Dulay is a former quartermaster/mariner and guide who has been a part of one of the most award winning eco-tourism initiatives. As Lagoon Explorer's lead guide he went on to manage that companies Philippine operation in January 2000 and as environmentalist for "Sea Canoe" (an award winning back to nature sea kayaking organization) he guided groups through much of Palawan. He has training and vast experience with natural history, geology, seamanship, regional community leadership and offers a refined understanding of flora and fauna. In the late nineteen-nineties he organized, founded and became president of the Calamean Island Tours Association (CITA) where he began organizing local boat captains and owners into Sea Kayaking Expeditions. Rannie then began his own adventure program in cooperation with "Calamian Island Tours Association", Discovery Divers, The Tagbanua Foundation of Coron Island, John Gray Sea Canoe, his accomplishments becoming featured in National Geographic Magazine (July 2002 issue) as Palawan Wilderness Guide and Environmentalist. His relation building with the Tagbanua tribes of Coron Island has offered unprecedented access to otherwise restricted tribal lands and his skilled negotiations with tribal leaders has offered resources to aboriginal peoples by creating projects, such as his sustainable Fish Culturing operation in association with the Tagbanwa of Coron Island and most recently an environmentally sensitive hatchery project which he owns and manages. With his vision to help, preserve and protect historical and cultural values, with his contributions to regional environmental interest creating sustainable resources and with his effectiveness in management, and his work with indigenous tribal groups Rannie Dulay offers Palawan Environmental extensive regional connections and tribal insight. Thru his Reefs-to-Rainforest conservation initiatives and attention to ensuring Food and Water security Rannie has spread environmental awareness offering community leadership and training. Rannie's efforts with PEMS ensures that each community manages their own natural resources in an environmentally sensitive and sustainable way for generations to come. With Rannie's diligent-and-insightful leadership, his program of tribal empowerment and his gentle approach to indigenous peoples, with his one-to-one environmental conservation, his philosophy of community and eco-management, and his fortuitous involvement with PEMS... Rannie's decades of integrity, ingenuity and perseverance has helped the region's of northern Palawan become more aware of their environmental responsibility. As a naturalist Rannie Dulay has found his place as one of the invaluable pioneers-of-Palawan.
Bernard has lived in Northern Palawan for five years studying regional cultures, teaching Natural History, writing and guiding kayaking, scuba diving and leading island hopping adventures throughout Palawan’s northern archipelago. An accomplished international traveler Bernard has experienced many of the more remote destinations of Asia, often from luxury-yachts but recently from traditional hand carved, out-triggered bancas. He says “This is were I want to be” believing that when you get close to the natural environment you get in touch with yourself, with the universe and its creator. South African by birth Bernards heritage echoes his Philippine grandmothers migration to Cape Town early in the last century and that linkage offered his destiny to return as an environmentalist addressing the needs of Palawan at an important time in history. His education, training, world experience, extensive seamanship and passion for nature offers tourists an opportunities to understand the nature of this pristine and remote wilderness and by their understanding offers an opportunity to share his vision, to help and to make a difference. Bernard says “I’ve developed a very personal… an insatiably need to give back to the Earth by recognizing the world as an extension of myself and an extension of every person. Our voyage of understanding is, at its best, a journey to share.” Working with other likeminded environmentalists Bernard began addressing the needs of Northern Palawan by giving birth to the concept of eco-repair tourism. Through his experience and growing awareness Bernard recognized that many aquatic habitats were being degraded at an alarming rate, and that without attention damage could become irreversible. The question for him became “What can we do to reverse this trend?”. Since that time Bernard has become the first Philippines advisor/representative for the Global Coral Reef Alliance Global Coral Reef Alliance Advis studying and developing techniques for reef repair, networking and educating local residents. In the fall of 2005, on one of the more remote islands, he met Caril Ridley a cultural anthropologist and American philanthropist in search of the perfect island. She was also looking to help the indigenous tribes of Palawan and proved to be the powerhouse in developing the desperately needed Environmental and Marine Studies Center known as PEMS. Palawan Eco-Adventures are created to support projects and programs designed to stay destruction of habitats, protect and preserve endangered and endemic species and help struggling borangay (villages) learn skills that will nurture a more progressive and sustainable environment.
Bienvenido (Benny) Luciano Edrosa Benny is a retired technologist born in the Philippines. He studied and lived in the United States for 20 years before returning to the purity and simplicity of his homeland. During his stay in the US he worked at perfecting the plastic industry and then became an environmentalist volunteering his time working with DENR PAWS in Palawan. There he found that paradise truly does exist and recognized the contrast between his new life living naturally and the city life in LA. With his return to nature he asked the question “What balance is there between human habitat and natures wonderland and what is our role in preserving paradise? He believes there is a discipline required if humanity wants to maintain a pristine-state for future generations and he punctuates his points by asserting “This is Palawan, the worlds Gelapagos” challenging us to understand what that means. Son of the founder of DuraCoat Paints Benny was fortunate to be educated at an exclusive school, Don Bosco Technical School in Mandaluyong. One of his passions is music, the amplification and sanitization of sound and he went on to study the dynamics of sounds and vibration, graduated electronics at Guzman Tech at age of sixteen. He helped with the family business (Suburban Lanes) while studying at Mapua Institute of Technology EE. After his family migrated to the United State in the early Eighties searching for better opportunities he worked for manufacturing companies as an injection molding technician. This industry was at its infancy and making use of his technological skill he became involved with state of the art process controllers and robotics as a Beta tester. With the advent of the computer age he becomes a System Analyst, Network Specialist, Software Creator and Programmer and has learned how to employ these skills as an environmentalist who believes that Eco Tourism is an answer to many of the worlds challenges and that we can show humanity a way to preserve nature through awareness, education, using pools of resources and employing technology.
Willy A. Jereza A graduate of Business Management with a Masters in Business Administration Willy’s experience with commerce and long career as an engaged environmentalist is just beginning. His work with PEMS for the preservation of Palawan and the betterment of humanity brings a wide range of skills, including; technological designs for processing solid waste, in-depth understanding of science, biology, chemistry, engineering and precision machinery. Willy’s passion is simple, he wants “To help protect the environment for the people of the World…” In the early nineties Willy organized “GREENPOWER” an NGO creating permanent growth seedlings for distribution at cost for private and public re-forestation. He was also part of “Earth Matters” sponsored by DENR of the Philippines and the United Nations. Willy’s success as an environmental speaker has propelled him to lecture at schools, universities and civic organizations around the Philippines and his proficiency with environmental science as well as his ability to present important western water technologies has made him a sought after radio talk show resource. Willy has published one-hundred-twenty articles with headings such as “Global Warming: A Phenomenon with many faces” and “Beyond the Limits of Earth” His journalism contributes ongoing to public awareness. His will and enthusiasm to the betterment of humanity and his efforts to Palawan.
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PROJECTS | THE CENTER | ECO-TOURS
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Simon Priest, Ph.D.
Devon Ridley
Erano “Rannie” Dulay
Bernard Kemp
