LAST WEEK a four-day Western Visayas Conservation Workshop was held in Bacolod City and experts and stakeholders crafted an integrated plan for the conservation of endangered species endemic to the region.
It was too sad that the gather was not given much public attention. Our region is home to endemic but threatened and endangered species. Some of these are the Visayan writhed-hornbill (Aceros waldeni), the Visayan spotted deer (Cervus alfredi), the Visayan warty pig (Sus cebifrons), the Panay monitor lizard (Varanus mabitang), and species of the parasitic plant genus rafflesia spp. (R. lobata and R. speciosa). This is both good news and bad news. We have a rich biodiversity but these species are on the brink of extinction, no thanks to deforestation courtesy of human intrusion. This should amplify the need to protect what remain of our forests.
The current rate of deforestation could wipe out our country’s forest covers in just a few years. With 1,900 hectares being deforested daily across the Philippines, the remaining forest cover as of 2006 was down to 8,000 square kilometers (km) from 270,000 square km at the turn of the century. Based on data from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the total forest area of the Philippines has been reduced to 6.7 million hectares as of 1990 from 30 million hectares in 1930. In 1996, only around 2.1 million hectares of original vegetation were remaining.
Preserving the country’s fast-dwindling forests and protected areas becomes even more urgent to lessen the devastating effects of landslides during typhoons. If they disappear, gone too, are the rare Visayan writhed-hornbill, Visayan spotted deer, Visayan warty pig, Panay monitor lizard, and rafflesia.
Discontinuity of the forest cover has a negative impact on biodiversity as it isolates populations of animal and vegetal species and so jeopardizes their viability. The protection of forests is thus important. They provide life support system, fresh water and air, medicinal plants, and other non-timber forest products, crucial for the livelihood of upland dwellers and indigenous people, and our unique flora and fauna.
