Text and photos by Henrylito D. Tacio
“We regret losing something when it is already gone,” goes a familiar saying. If the usual disruptive trend to the country’s bird species continues, the maxim might well prove true for the diminishing legacy of the Philippines.
Although not talking only of Philippine birds, Dr. Lee Talbot, then director of the Southeast Asia Project on Wildlife Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, said: “A few decades ago, the wildlife of the Philippines was notable for its abundance; now, it is notable for its variety; if present trend of destruction continues, Philippine wildlife will be notable for its absence.”
Dr. Dioscoro Rabor, a well-known Filipino wildlife expert, agrees. “It is about time that we should stop making ourselves intentionally blind to the real status of our wildlife resources,” he deplores. “We should face the fact that our country is no longer rich in forests and consequently, of wildlife which used to be a normal component of our forests.”
Deforestation
The destruction of forests, which is the natural habitat for birds, is the primary reason why Philippines birds are facing extinction. In an article published in Manila Bulletin, Dr. Theresa Mundita Lim was quoted as saying: “Most of these species, such as eagles, hornbills, and woodpeckers, depend on trees for food, or on nesting sites.
Dr. Lim is the director of the Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB), a line agency of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). “(Birds),” she said, “don’t just nest on any trees, and they can live only under specific types of trees.”
Some 80 years ago, more than half of the country’s 30 million hectares was blanketed with forests, and the forest-to-man ratio was then 1:13 per Filipino. In 1990, the environment department recorded only 6.7 million hectares of forest land in the entire archipelago, and the forest-to-man ratio dropped to 0.1 hectare per Filipino.
In The World for World is Forest, Ursula K. Le Guin wrote: “A forest ecology is a
delicate one. If the forest perishes, its fauna may go with it.”
“There are now only a few patches of forest in the Philippines that are considered pristine old growth,” John Philip Lesaca, chair of Haribon Foundation, told Manila Bulletin’s Monch Mikko E. Misagal. “Based on the current trend in deforestation in the Philippines, forest birds are most at risk of the number of threats that they encounter.”
The State of Philippine Birds, published by Haribon Foundation, said that 67% of the country’s birds “spend their lives or part of their lives in forests.” And according to Dr. Lim, “Birds serve as a good indicator of our forests’ state.”
The Davao-based Philippine Eagle Foundation said that a pair of Philippine eagle (Pithecophaga jeffreyi) needs at least 7,000 to 13,000 hectares of forest as nesting territory. “The Philippine eagle has become a critically endangered species because the loss of the forest had made it lose its natural habitat,” explained Dennis Salvador, the foundation’s executive director.
When Cebu lost all of its forest cover to kaingineros (slash-and-burn farmers), 9 of the province’s 10 endemic bird species and subspecies disappeared. What remains was the Cebu black shama (Copsychus cebuensis), which the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classified as “critically endangered.” Called locally as “siloy,” the bird is able to survive by “adapting to living in bamboo groves and secondary forest patches.”
Trade and for food
On the other hand, Philippine cockatoo (Cacatua haematuropygia) has declined extremely rapidly owing to extensive deforestation within its range, but also as a result of the high prices the birds fetch in trade.
Birdlife International reports: “On Palawan, Polillo and Samar, trapping is particularly serious, and the high price fetched per bird means that chicks are taken from virtually every accessible nest. High numbers were (legally) traded internationally in the 1980s. Poaching of nestlings and snares possibly intended for roosting cockatoos have also been noted during recent conservation work on Pandanan Island.”
The same is true is happening in Surigao del Sur. Cecil Morella, in a report for Agence France-Presse (AFP), accompanied Felizardo Goring, a local guide, into some forests areas in the province. During the sojourn, the journalist witnessed one local man selling his trapped parrot.
Morella wrote: “Goring explained the blue-naped parrot disappeared locally about 15 years ago, primarily because of pet trade. He said forest birds sold for as little as P500 in the markets of Bislig, the nearest city… with customers buying them for food as well as pets.”
Like chickens, birds can also be eaten. And this is another reason why birds are fast disappearing from this part of the world. Take the case of big bird Eastern sarus crane (Grus antigone sharpei), which used to abound in the open swampy areas of Isabela, Kalinga-Apayao, Nueva Ecija and the island of Panay.
“In the 1940s, the birds were frequently seen in groups of up to five in flooded rice paddies,” wrote one award-winning author. “When people, however, learned that the crane’s meat is much tastier than that of chicken, the birds had been hunted relentlessly, and with their big size, they didn’t stand a chance.”
Some laws
To give birds a chance to live, the Philippine government signed Republic Act 7586 (enacted in 1992) which set important bird and biodiversity areas through the National Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS).
Another law, Republic Act 9147, more popularly known as the “Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act,” penalizes any person found guilty of killing or destroying any critically endangered wildlife species “with imprisonment from six to 12 years, and/or a fine between P100,000 and P1 million.”
The Act also said: “No person or entity shall be allowed possession of wildlife unless such person or entity can prove financial and technical capability and facility to maintain said wildlife.”
Trading and transporting of wildlife, including birds, are classified as illegal acts under the said law. — (TO BE CONCLUDED)
