Nearly 5 years after death, citizens keep botanist Leonard Co’s work alive

Botanist Leonard Co was gunned down in a crossfire between government troops and communist guerrillas in Leyte nearly five years ago but his work lives on, thanks to ordinary citizens.

 

Co, an internationally acclaimed plant scientist shot dead in November 2010, had left behind an unfinished manuscript and over 11,000 photos, The Guardian said.

 

One of his projects—a first modern overview of all indigenous plants in the Philippines—is being continued by friend Julie Barcelona and her husband Pieter Pelser of the University of Canterbury, New Zealand; and Daniel Nickrent of Southern Illinois University.

 

Pelser, Barcelona and Nickrent are keeping an open access database to allow anyone to identify plants they find and help to populate the collection.

 

“Many Filipinos have smartphones, which can help to gather biodiversity data that would otherwise take years and cost millions of dollars... Connecting the public with the scientists has been beneficial to both parties,” Barcelona said.

 

“Social media is bringing down ivory towers. It has never been easier for people to get involved in scientific projects and experience the thrill of discovery,” Pelser added.

 

Co had started the Digital Flora of the Phillippines, a continuously updated collection of records and photos of indigenous Philippine plants taken by Co and others, and powered by social media. It has 10,000 species listed so far.

 

The guide is not only a comprehensive guide to the plant life of the Philippines, but also shows the power of citizen science, The Guardian said.

 

"Whether it’s helping to recover old worldwide weather observations by transcribing ships’ logs, or helping to understand what killer whales are saying by categorizing sounds, Citizen Science puts the task of information gathering into the hands of the public. It’s a valuable tool that means scientists can get their hands on a large amount of data, quickly and at low cost," it said.

 

The team hopes the Digital Flora of the Philippines will convince more about the beauty and value of biodiversity, and help protect species and ecosystems.

 

“We honor Co’s contributions to Philippine botany and conservation, and hope to continue his legacy of generating and freely sharing botanical knowledge to stimulate biological education, research, and conservation,” Barcelona said.

 

Digital guide

 

Matt Walters, Digital Imaging Technician at the University of Canterbury, created a guide to help Citizen Scientists collect scientifically useful images.

 

The guide explains how to get shots of the right parts of plants, at the right angle and scale, for identification.

 

“Many people are keen to help by photographing unusual plants they come across. But often they’ll only photograph the prettiest parts, making it hard and often impossible to accurately identify them. I created the guide to explain which parts of the plant, and which other information such as size and location, will help us identify and document them,” Walters said.

 

Walters is working on another Citizen Science project at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, London.

 

The project stores thousands of specimens of plants and trees at Ngel Nyaki forest in Nigeria. —Joel Locsin/KG, GMA News