Dr. Mariano Mapili is an associate professor of Physical Geography/Biogeography and Agriculture at UFV’s School of Land Use and Environmental Change. Mapili conducts research as part of the team at the Food and Agriculture Institute, combining his training in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) from BCIT and Resource Management and Environmental Studies from his PhD at UBC. This semester Mapili teaches BIO/GEOG 357: Conservation GIS and GEOG 103: The Physical Environment.
Since you’re teaching Conservation GIS, could you explain it to someone who’s [not a science student]? What is GIS?
GIS [means] geographic information system. It’s just a series of maps that you will use to answer a question. Let us say you are answering the question, “Where will I extend the habitat of this fox?” That’s location. Now we can use different maps — map of the vegetation, map of the human activity, map of the latitude, etc. Because you know that each animal has its own range of physical and biological processes wherein it will be limited to [grow], to function, or to reproduce.
If somebody wanted to succeed in your class or do well in ecology classes, what would you recommend?
I had in the past students who … say, “I read the whole chapter. How can I fail that quiz?” I said, “You failed because you failed to transfer your knowledge. Yes, you have all of this. But will you transfer it into a new situation?” That is what I’m looking for.
… I tell them, in order to be successful in my class, number one is to be engaged. Anything, everywhere that you see, hear, that I do in this class is fair game for the test … Usher has the song “Without You” with David Guetta, and then the continents are moving away from each other [in the music video]. But that’s plate tectonics. It’s perfect for my class. Then all of a sudden in the test, “10 marks?! How is 10 marks for Usher?” If they did not attend that course, if they were not engaged, they forget this.
… Sometimes they second guess themselves — especially with true or false. Everything will be false if you are too picky. Each and everything will be false … After probably the first two classes they know how to make notes. They know to write everything. They know when I repeat something I say, write something [about it].
How did you make your way to Canada from the Philippines?
When I came to Canada, Dalhousie University had a big multimillion dollar project with the Canadian International Development Agency. Their project is in the Philippines, and one part of their project is … for capacity building. For the universities in the Philippines, they will have a call for a competition — competition to come and do a PhD in Canada.
It wasn’t really for me because I was teaching in a small agricultural college at the time. So when the posting came to our small school, everybody was saying, “Oh, what are the chances?” We have so many hundreds of universities in the Philippines and you will compete for three positions to go to Canada? … I said, “Oh, I’ll take it!” That’s what I am. I am so adventurous. I don’t care. That’s why I tell students, “Be like me. Look at me. I’m short; I’m whatever, but you know, I go places.” I didn’t know because I was also taking master’s courses in another school. I didn’t know that I was chosen for the top eight.
So, now we have a top eight. Top eight, and I was the last one to be interviewed. The Canadians, … they came and they said, “So, you’ll be the last one. I know you’re tired, but we only have a few minutes before we leave ….” One of the questions they asked was, “Okay, so when you come to Canada … you’re Filipino, you like cooking, what dish would you like to teach [Canadians]?”
I had to think because I was the last one to be interviewed. The first to be interviewed I knew that if the same question was asked they would have mentioned already the good food of the Philippines — all the beautiful food. So I said, “I would rather shock this guy.”
I said, “Okay, you know what. I come from the North, and in the North we have a dish called killing me softly.” Once I say that, do you think they will forget what I said? No. They will not forget. Oh my god, what is that? What is killing me softly?
… That’s how I think I got one of the three [spots].
Can you tell me more about the projects you’ve been involved with?
I finished a project with CHASI. I finished work with them and that project was about all of these problems [faced by] the Indigenous communities, all of these children who were killed [in the residential school program]. That is also about location. They came to me and they said, “We want you to find origin centres in Canada.” I had a whole Canada wide data set and all of the different demographics of the First Nations — how many per cent are young, how many per cent are old, etc. Then I created it. I submitted that and they said, “Okay, that is very good. We’d like to have another GIS project with you.”
[This next project] is about the LGBTQ+ [community]. I am mapping the locations where they are safe — safe locations for them. [Martha, the director of CHASI] said, “This is very close to what you’ve done anyway with the First Nations [data], but for this we want them to know how far they are from these safe environments if they have to walk, if they have to take the bus, if they have a car.”
This interview was edited for length and clarity.
Image: Mariano Mapili
Chandy is a biology major/chemistry minor who's been a staff writer, Arts editor, and Managing Editor at The Cascade. She began writing in elementary school when she produced Tamagotchi fanfiction to show her peers at school -- she now lives in fear that this may have been her creative peak.
