The Philippines: A biodiversity treasure trove
Added to website: 19 October 2004
The Philippines belongs to an area of the world to which biologists refer as Wallacea. This small region is recognised as having arguably the most spectacular diversity of life to be found anywhere on the planet. As Lawrence R. Heaney put it, “it is reasonable to think of the Philippines as the Galapagos multiplied tenfold.” At Coral Cay Conservation (CCC), we’ve been running community-based marine and forest conservation projects in the country for nearly a decade now and feel it is a second home to us. We are enormously grateful for the hospitality, generosity and open-mindedness of the people with whom we’ve worked, lived and dived during this time.
As with most countries in the tropics, The Philippines has its share of problems which we in the West hear so much about. A rapidly expanding population intensifies issues such as the logging of old-growth forests, extensive damage to coral reefs and the accelerating rate at which so many irreplaceable species are disappearing. However, we rarely hear about the remarkable triumphs that the Filipino people have achieved in dealing with many of these issues. In terms of biological conservation, the country is fast carving out a reputation for itself as one of the most proactive nations in South East Asia, and many of her neighbours are now looking to The Philippines to learn how they too can manage their ‘living resources’ more effectively. By undertaking extensive environmental education campaigns, by creating efficient and appropriate Marine and Forest Reserves to safeguard their biodiversity, and by carrying out far-reaching governmental and institutional research into sustainable resource management, the country has taken major steps forward towards their goal of ensuring a future for her flora, her fauna… and for her people.
Our work is multi-faceted, but it includes survey programmes designed to identify and quantify the marine and forest resources of our project sites. During our time here, we’ve repeatedly been amazed by the sheer variety of the region’s biology. The dive sites of the Visayan Islands, for example, are world-beaters. In 2003, the renowned coral biologist, Dr. Doug Fenner, visited us to carry out a short series of species identification dives in Sogod Bay in the Province of Southern Leyte, the site of our current marine habitat-mapping project. In just 6 hours of diving, he identified nearly 300 different species of reef-building coral. To put this in perspective, that’s nearly as many species in just one small bay as can be found on the entire Great Barrier Reef in Australia, or around 4 times the total number for the whole of the Caribbean!
These coral reefs are populated by an extraordinary array of inhabitants, from snappily dressed pyjama cardinalfish to grumpy-looking groupers, bigger than a man. Although you have to look hard to find the fingernail-sized pygmy sea horses masterfully camouflaged against the sea-fans, you can’t miss the schools of thousands of silvery jacks cruising over the multi-coloured landscape. Every crevice contains a biological treasure. Frequent visitors to the reefs include green and hawksbill turtles, beautiful blue-spotted rays and even gentle and playful whale sharks, the biggest fish in the ocean. In the bays where the tiny fishing boats ply their way there are dolphins and whales by the score.
Back on dry land, the terrestrial environment was once 99% covered in ‘old growth’ forests, meaning that virtually all of the native Philippine flora and fauna is to some degree dependent on these eco-systems. This is one of the reasons that the protection of the remaining forests has been such a high priority for many Filipinos. Nearly 60% of all The Philippines’ native land mammals, reptiles, amphibians and birds are found nowhere else on earth, making this a conservation ‘hot-spot’. Enormous fruit bats live deep in the forests, sharing the air with hundreds of species of tropical birds, such as flame-breasted fruit doves and Philippine eagles. Asian leopard cats steal through trees that hide the planet’s smallest primate, the tarsier. If you want to look at a different eco-system, just jump on a boat to a neighbouring island.
Eco-tourism initiatives here have created huge opportunities, both for the tourists and for the nation. As CCC’s President, Dr. David Bellamy has noted, tourism may save the planet. Sustainable tourism creates a ‘resource value’ in the maintenance of biodiversity, making the preservation of endangered habitats a viable strategy in putting food on the table. Most of this remarkable land remains virtually unknown to mainstream tourism, which makes a visit here an unforgettable experience. We look forward to continuing our relationship with the country and can see great things in store for her future.
Shay O’Farrell
CCC Chief Technical Advisor
Coral Cay Conservation is a UK based not-for-profit organisation, dedicated to “providing resources to help sustain livelihoods and alleviate poverty through the protection, restoration and management of coral reefs and tropical forests.”
