(The images were downloaded to a hard drive of Co’s friend, Imelda Sarmiento, just months before his untim

ely passing)

MANILA, Philippines – On his 15th death anniversary, family and friends of the late ethnobotanist Leonard Co held a press conference to announce that they were giving public access to rare photographs of native flora taken by Co — the People’s Botanist — a few months before he died.

On November 14, 2010, Co, forest guard Sofronio Cortez, and guide Julius Borromeo, were in Kananga, Leyte, for a forest restoration project when soldiers mistook them for rebels and fired at them.

Among those present at the event held at the Institute of Biology (IB) of University of the Philippines in Diliman on Saturday, November 14, were Co’s widow, Glenda Co, and representatives of the Justice for Leonard Co Movement, IB, Philippine Native Plants Conservation Society, Incorporated (PNPCSI), Green Convergence, and the Constantino Foundation.

Around 2,000 “new and rescued images” from the field work of Co were presented. These images were downloaded to a hard drive of Co’s friend, educator and musician Imelda Sarmiento, just months before his untimely passing. She is said to be “the fiercest, most effective advocate of native trees in the Philippines,” said Constantino Foundation managing director Renato Redentor Constantino.

Images which were thought to have been “lost to rust and mold” were rescued from the data storage unit, restored in a laboratory in Las Piñas, and organized by IB in cooperation with the Constantino Foundation and Green Convergence, said Constantino.

The digital photographs were curated scientifically and were released for free public download starting that day. Migs de las Llagas, the project manager for the Leonard Co Collection (LCC), shared a link to the demo drive.

LLC was initiated by the Constantino Foundation.

“The demo drive from today was meant to showcase the kinds of botanical data recovered from the hard drive. Most of the value is in the documented plant photos, but it has many other applications even outside of research,” De las Llagas told Rappler.

“The data we showcased today aren’t the only things we recovered [from the drive]. It also has personal files from Sir Leonard’s laptop,” he added.

It was, according to Constantino, “A gift to the nation and the world, as Leonard Co would have wanted it.”

The organizers said in a communique that “the images will form the core of the [LCC] the main repository of the works, notes, and personal memorabilia of the beloved People’s Botanist.”

The LCC will integrate resources from other efforts, such as Co’s Digital Flora. The collection will eventually be housed in UP Data Commons, managed by UP’s IB. The Constantino Foundation is hosting the data base until the period UP Data Commons and IB are ready to share the established website.