Professor Lucia Lastimoza of West Visayas State University established the Mari-it Wildlife Conservation, a rescue and captive breeding center for threatened endemic species of the West Visayas Faunal Region. Through her leadership, the center holds the distinction of being the first in the world to have successfully bred in captivity the Visayan warty pig, Visayan writhed hornbill, Panay bushy-tailed cloud rat, and blue-crowned racquet tail parrot. In 2017, she was awarded the Presidential Ling