“By preserving plants, animals, rocks, and other records of life, the museum and herbarium helps us understand and protect the region’s remarkable biodiversity. It also reminds us that conservation begins with knowing what we have, valuing it, and keeping it for the next generation,” Torrefiel said.

 

In her message during the museum’s inauguration, Dean Patricia B. Arinto noted that “It is especially fitting that the museum and herbarium are now housed at the Leyte Samar Heritage Center, the university’s principal platform for culture and heritage studies in Eastern Visayas. Locating the museum here affirms an important insight—that culture and ecology are deeply interconnected and understanding our region requires us to study not only its histories and traditions, but also its landscapes, biodiversity, and environmental realities. In this way, the Leyte Samar Heritage Center becomes a space where scientific research, cultural memory, public humanities, and environmental stewardship can meaningfully converge.”

 

The museum and herbarium’s inauguration followed Torrefiel’s professorial chair lecture on “Documenting a Floristic Crisis: Threatened Vascular Plants of Samar Island, Philippines.” Torrefiel holds the Cornelio A. Manuel, Jr. Professorial Chair in AY 2025-2026.

 

Coincidentally, the professorial chair lecture and the inauguration of the UP Tacloban Natural History Museum and Herbarium took place on the United Nations’ International Day for Biological Diversity.