NATURE FOR LIFE
By Annabelle L. Plantilla, GuBat Learning Center
I STAND staring at the small building in front of me. It is now in different stages of painting and renovation. Yards of plastic sack material cover the building hiding the exterior from the prying eyes of the people who troop to gaze at the endangered Golden Crowned Flying Fox at the Bat Roost in Cubi Point, Subic Bay Freeport Zone in Zambales. Four years ago Haribon, the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA), the United States Peace Corps and Crown Peak Hotels signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) committing to put up a GuBat Learning Center (GLC) in Building 8321, Cubi Point, Subic Bay Freeport Zone.
With the general objective of making learning fun, the facility seeks to educate and motivate visitors in understanding, enjoying, and encourage them to support the protection of Philippine biodiversity. The GLC also promotes the giant fruit bats of Subic and their roosting area as a site for learning and ecotourism activities.
Being the nearest place to Metro Manila and having an intact lowland forest, Subic, where the GLC can be found, is the perfect location to educate the public. Home to the largest fruit bat in the world that can only be found in the Philippines, it is also visited by millions of tourists (domestic and foreign) every year. Its pristine forests and its protected ocean is a perfect showcase of Philippine biodiversity.
The Royal Netherlands Embassy, the Bat Conservation International, the Global Grassroots Fund, the USAID and the International Development and Environmental Shipping School initially provided support for GLC's renovation in 2003. Because of the constant need to make the facility interesting and educationally effective, a second renovation has been going on for the past month. Supported almost wholly by the Royal Netherlands Embassy, designer Benjie C. Mallari donated the facility's new design and merchandise concepts and is also supervising the latest GLC changes. Mr. Mallari has engaged the skills of several UP Fine Arts students who will be executing playful and mischievous versions of bats and a shark, which blows bubbles, that will hang in the bat room and the ocean area, respectively! Former Meralco employee Peter Ramos brings Mr. Mallari's individual room and overall facility designs alive with his superb artistic renditions, and lighting director Romy Virata (who was lighting director for several plays in Meralco and CCP including the concerts of Keith Martin and Michael Buble) animates all exhibit rooms with a simple yet dramatic interplay of lights exuding their distinct moods. Propsman Darwin Abuan and Abner Herrera contribute their creativity in interpreting Mr. Mallari's spatial dimensions of the GLC's thematic rooms.
There are five components of the new GLC, starting with the reception area that accommodates a small library and activity area for children. The viewing room immediately follows the reception where short film clips about bats and Philippine biodiversity will be shown. The bat room, which showcases facts about bats and features Philippine species, creates an ambience where both children and adults will surely enjoy. The forest area simulates a "walk in the forest" experience and at the same time demonstrates the importance of this unique ecosystem in providing us with our very basic needs, which are water, food and fresh air. Capping the GLC is the ocean area that, like the forest area, illustrates how the different ecosystems found in the ocean such as the mangrove, sea grass and coral reef help us to survive. Souvenirs in the form of t-shirts, coloring books and mugs can be found in the souvenir corner.
The GuBat Learning Center is scheduled to re-open on October 28, 2005. The GLC is the perfect destination for student field trips. It will be well worth the trip as Haribon guides will provide a very educational yet stimulating interpretation of the GLC and the natural environment around it. Bat watching sessions can also be arranged to truly experience bats and learn about their behavior. Surely a visit to Subic is not complete without a visit to the GLC
I STAND staring at the small building in front of me. It is now in different stages of painting and renovation. Yards of plastic sack material cover the building hiding the exterior from the prying eyes of the people who troop to gaze at the endangered Golden Crowned Flying Fox at the Bat Roost in Cubi Point, Subic Bay Freeport Zone in Zambales. Four years ago Haribon, the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA), the United States Peace Corps and Crown Peak Hotels signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) committing to put up a GuBat Learning Center (GLC) in Building 8321, Cubi Point, Subic Bay Freeport Zone.
With the general objective of making learning fun, the facility seeks to educate and motivate visitors in understanding, enjoying, and encourage them to support the protection of Philippine biodiversity. The GLC also promotes the giant fruit bats of Subic and their roosting area as a site for learning and ecotourism activities.
Being the nearest place to Metro Manila and having an intact lowland forest, Subic, where the GLC can be found, is the perfect location to educate the public. Home to the largest fruit bat in the world that can only be found in the Philippines, it is also visited by millions of tourists (domestic and foreign) every year. Its pristine forests and its protected ocean is a perfect showcase of Philippine biodiversity.
The Royal Netherlands Embassy, the Bat Conservation International, the Global Grassroots Fund, the USAID and the International Development and Environmental Shipping School initially provided support for GLC's renovation in 2003. Because of the constant need to make the facility interesting and educationally effective, a second renovation has been going on for the past month. Supported almost wholly by the Royal Netherlands Embassy, designer Benjie C. Mallari donated the facility's new design and merchandise concepts and is also supervising the latest GLC changes. Mr. Mallari has engaged the skills of several UP Fine Arts students who will be executing playful and mischievous versions of bats and a shark, which blows bubbles, that will hang in the bat room and the ocean area, respectively! Former Meralco employee Peter Ramos brings Mr. Mallari's individual room and overall facility designs alive with his superb artistic renditions, and lighting director Romy Virata (who was lighting director for several plays in Meralco and CCP including the concerts of Keith Martin and Michael Buble) animates all exhibit rooms with a simple yet dramatic interplay of lights exuding their distinct moods. Propsman Darwin Abuan and Abner Herrera contribute their creativity in interpreting Mr. Mallari's spatial dimensions of the GLC's thematic rooms.
There are five components of the new GLC, starting with the reception area that accommodates a small library and activity area for children. The viewing room immediately follows the reception where short film clips about bats and Philippine biodiversity will be shown. The bat room, which showcases facts about bats and features Philippine species, creates an ambience where both children and adults will surely enjoy. The forest area simulates a "walk in the forest" experience and at the same time demonstrates the importance of this unique ecosystem in providing us with our very basic needs, which are water, food and fresh air. Capping the GLC is the ocean area that, like the forest area, illustrates how the different ecosystems found in the ocean such as the mangrove, sea grass and coral reef help us to survive. Souvenirs in the form of t-shirts, coloring books and mugs can be found in the souvenir corner.
The GuBat Learning Center is scheduled to re-open on October 28, 2005. The GLC is the perfect destination for student field trips. It will be well worth the trip as Haribon guides will provide a very educational yet stimulating interpretation of the GLC and the natural environment around it. Bat watching sessions can also be arranged to truly experience bats and learn about their behavior. Surely a visit to Subic is not complete without a visit to the GLC
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