Secretary Locsin Receives ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity Executive Director

Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. meets with ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity Executive Director Theresa Mundita S. Lim. (DFA ASEAN photo)

MANILA 28 February 2019 – Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. received ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) Executive Director Dr. Theresa Mundita S. Lim to discuss present and future collaboration between ACB and the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Dr. Lim assumed her position on 17 April 2018.

Secretary Locsin highlighted the importance of biodiversity conservation to the over-all goal of taking care of the environment and ensuring sustainable development of the region. He expressed the Department’s continued support to the work of the ACB.

Dr. Lim presented the ACB’s activities and programs, as well as its future direction. She also mentioned the preparations that the organization is undertaking for the next round of negotiations at the Conference of the parties for the Convention on Biological Diversity which will be held in China in 2020. Secretary Locsin affirmed the Department’s support and participation in the said meeting.

The ACB is an intergovernmental organization that facilitates cooperation and coordination among the ASEAN Member States and with regional and international organizations on the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of such biodiversity in the ASEAN region.

It was established in 2005 and is the only ASEAN Regional Center of Excellence based in the Philippines. END

Secretary Locsin and Dr. Lim (third and fourth from left, respectively) joins (from left) Department of Foreign Affairs-Office of ASEAN Affairs Director Aian Caringal, Office of the Secretary Special Assistant Igor Bailen, ACB External Relations and Policy Specialist Dr. Mary Kristerie Baleva and ACB Communications Associate Angela Metin in this photo. (DFA ASEAN photo)