Foreign Affairs Junior Joins Int'l Camp for the Environment

A third year Foreign Affairs major was one of only four Filipinos who was invited to the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) Sea and Earth Advocates (SEA) Camp held for close to weeks last month in Baclayon, Bohol.

Rhyn Anthony Nique S. Esolana joined 30 young leaders from ten Southeast Asian countries who made it to the final cut in the US Embassy-funded program, from among 2,500 applicants.

Having an established background in environmental conservation gave him an edge over applicants from the regional bloc. Esolana was the vice chairperson of the Silliman University Student Government’s (SUSG) Environment Committee when he was in his sophomore year. He also held positions such as Project Manager for Straw Wars PH, camp leader for Camp SEWI (Student’s Environmental Writing Initiative), and volunteer for the Shark Summit.

Esolana’s leaning towards the environment was reinforced on campus and his encounter with other student environmentalists, including SEAbling (a term referring to fellow alumni in SEA Camp), Nikko Calledo. Calledo was vice president of the SUSG and founded Straw Wars PH.

“From then on, I started participating in environmental initiatives and it was through one coastal cleanup that I realized one solid campaign that I could pursue for the environment: to keep cigarette butts away from coastal baselines.”

His project “Butts of the Beach (BOB)”, which received a grant from the US Embassy in the Philippines, is a social media campaign aimed at educating the public to dispose of their cigarette butts properly and keep them away from coastal areas. Esolana envisions working with the local government in passing an ordinance regulating smoking on the shoreline.

In Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup report last year, cigarette butts topped the items collected from the shores, amounting to almost 2 million butts worldwide.

SEA Camp is a project of Save Philippine Seas and the U.S. Embassy in the Philippines. It aims to empower young leaders to be leaders in environmental conservation. The camp features panel discussions, workshops, site visits, and project pitching. This is the second leg of the ASEAN SEA Camp. By Aprille Roselle Vince Ragay Juanillo/Association of Young Environmental Journalists

(Photo: Rhyn Anthony Nique S. Esolana, first from right, with fellow YSEALI Sea and Earth Advocates Camp participants.)