DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/02 October) – A zoologist born and raised in Agusan del Norte has made it to TIME magazine’s “Heroes of the Environment 2008” along with Guyana President Bharrat Jagdeo, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenneger, British entrepreneur Peter Head, Inuit activist Sheila Watt-Cloutier, Chinese journalist Wang Yongchan and 26 others.

The lone Filipino among the 2008 heroes, Jurgenne Honculada-Primavera, was chosen for her campaign on sustainable fish/shrimp farming and the protection of mangroves. 

“I am not and have never been against aquaculture in my mangrove advocacy. My paradigm is that of mangroves and ponds existing side by side, carefully balanced to protect the environment while sustaining food production,” she said.


Jurgenne Honculada-Primavera

Primavera finished BS Zoology, cum laude, at the University of the Philippines in 1966 and her doctoral degree in Marine Science in 1996 from the same university. She obtained her MA in Zoology from the Indiana University in 1969, taught biology and zoology at the Mindanao State University in Marawi City and has been based in Iloilo since 1975, when she joined SEAFDEC/AQD.

Primavera learned she was chosen when Bangkok-based Hannah Beech of TIME Magazine “interviewed me long distance for one hour at my Sta. Barbara, California hotel” on September 23.She was in Sta. Barbara for a meeting with her writing group at the University of California. The group meets twice a year, she said. }

She returned to the country evening of October 1 and saw a copy of the magazine only today.

Beech’s article on Primavera begins with a question: “Love shrimp cocktail?”

She continues: “So do lots of others – and that’s the problem. Jurgenne Primavera, whose groundbreaking studies on the life cycles of tiger prawns in her native Philippines helped galvanize an aquaculture revolution, doesn't want to impose a global ban on shrimp tempura. But the former senior scientist at the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center on the Filipino island of Panay is campaigning for sustainable fish-farming in order to protect the mangrove forests that act as a crucial buffer zone between land and sea.“

Planting mangroves, Zamboanga, March 2005

“Primavera’s message is that mangroves can save lives and property from destructive typhoons, filter out silt runoff that kills coral reefs, provide nurseries to juvenile fish and shrimp, and renew fisheries catches. Having spent many years promoting the construction of aquaculture ponds in mangrove areas, Primavera's message of mangrove protection carries significant weight,” the SEAFDEC/ACD website notes.

Primavera said the country has 230,000 hectares of fishponds. But the mangrove cover is only about half of that. There is an ongoing review, she said, on the number of mangrove hectarage in the country.

A healthy coastal ecosystem, she told MindaNews, requires “two to six hectares of mangroves for every hectare of fishpond.”



“We have a lot of rehabilitation to do,” she said, adding that while mangrove reforestation is going on, the mortality rate is high.

“I wish we Filipinos had more concern for mangroves and the environment,” Primavera told MindaNews.

Zamboanga Sibugay, March 2005

Primavera was conferred a Ph.D. in Science honoris causa by Stockholm University in September 2004.

“In cooperation with scientists from Stockholm University she has shown that mangroves are key areas for recruitment of fish and shrimp and that development of conventional shrimp farming may have far reaching negative economic and social implications …[To] create sustainable alternatives she is now doing research on … integrated farming of shrimp, fish, crabs and mangrove,” the citation read.

She is also a recipient of a Pew Marine Conservation Fellowship. The Fellowship is given to “exemplary leaders and active problem-solvers whose work has important ramifications for creating innovative marine conservation strategies, deploying new technologies, increasing awareness and understanding of the world's oceans, and establishing sustainable marine policy at the regional, national, and international levels.”

Despite her many  concerns, Primavera found time for a first visit to the Agusan Marsh in May 2005 when she received an award as among Five Outstanding Butuanons during the 

annual BalikButuan. During that visit, she wrote,  “for one who had spent her professional life outside Agusan (in Lanao and Iloilo), I felt it was payback time to my birthplace and promised to do science in the Marsh.”

She did. Two years later, the First Scientific Conference on the Agusan Marsh was held in Butuan City on May 21-23, 2007.



Primavera is wife to Nick and mother to Yasmin and sons Nikos, Karlo and Jorge. Yasmin and Karlo are marine scientists, Nikos is into writing and Law and Jorge obtained his MS International Development from the International University of Japan.

Last year, Von Hernandez of Greenpeace Philippines, was among those named as TIME's Environmental Heroes for 2007. "

In 2003, actress Chin-Chin Gutierrez was named one of the Asian Heroes by TIME, for her  advocacy for environmental protection.

"These heroes of the environment," wrote TIME's Bryan Walsh in this year's special edition, "provide light in the darkness" and "are living proof that despair is not the only option, that hope remains a choice."

"They remind us that in the face of human creativity and will, no challenge is too great, and no battle is unwinnable - if only we fight." (Carolyn O. Arguillas/MindaNews)

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