'Bayawak' included in endangered 'red list'

MANILA, Philippines - The Panay monitor lizard, also known as the bayawak, could soon disappear from the country’s tropical forests as logging threatens its habitat and hunters push the species toward extinction, an international environmental group warned yesterday.

The Panay monitor lizard, (Varanus mabitang) is one of the 165 endemic species in the Philippines that could soon vanish in the wild, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Switzerland-based IUCN has listed the Panay monitor lizard as well as 164 other endemic species in the Philippines in its updated “red list” of threatened and endangered species.

“The 165 endemic Philippine species new to the IUCN red list include the Panay monitor lizard (Varanus mabitang), which is endangered. This highly specialized monitor lizard is threatened by habitat loss due to agriculture and logging and is hunted by humans for food,” the IUCN said in a statement.

According to IUCN, there are now 1,677 reptiles on the IUCN red list, with 293 added this year. All in all, the IUCN said 469 reptiles are threatened with extinction and 22 are already extinct or extinct in the wild.

At the same time, the IUCN said that the Philippine sail fin water lizard (Hydrosaurus pustulatus) has now entered in the vulnerable category. The ICUN said the Sail-fin water lizard is threatened by habitat loss, as hatchlings of this species are likewise heavily collected both for pet trade and local consumption.

“The world’s reptiles are undoubtedly suffering, but the picture may be much worse than it currently looks,” said Simon Stuart, chairman of IUCN’s Species Survival Commission. “We need an assessment of all reptiles to understand the severity of the situation but we don’t have the $2-3 million to carry it out.”

In an interview, Dr. Mundita Lim, director of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau (PAWB), said they submitted the names of threatened and endangered species endemic to the Philippines to the IUCN to obtain global recognition on the status of these animals and boost international support for their conservation.

Lim said PAWB, IUCN and other local conservation and biodiversity experts participated in the red list assessment in 2007, which subsequently led to their submission of threatened and endangered endemic Philippine species to the IUCN.

Species endemic to the Philippines that are already part of the IUCN red list are the Philippine eagle, tamaraw, and Calamian deer, among others.

“Locally, the Panay monitor lizard and Sail-fin water lizard have already been recognized as critically endangered and threatened, respectively,” Lim told The STAR. “And now they are included in the red list. We made the submission to gain global recognition and enhance efforts to conserve them as well as their habitats.”

Lim said they have proposed to protect further the forest cover in Panay region although under the Wildlife Act, these forest areas have already been declared protected.

While the monitor lizard could be found mainly in Panay region, Lim said the Sail-fin water lizard could be found in the Luzon region specifically near water bodies and swamps.

According to Lim, most of the Philippine species included in the new IUCN red list are insects, amphibians, and fishes. She said that from 17 species of insects, 24 amphibian species, and 29 fish species in 2000, the number increased to 199 insects, 48 amphibians, and 60 fishes in 2008.

The IUCN has surveyed a total of 46,677 animals and plants for this year’s red list of endangered species and determined that 17,291 of them are threatened with extinction.

More than one in five of all known mammals, over a quarter of reptiles and 70 percent of plants are under threat, according to the survey, which featured over 2,800 new species compared with 2008.

“These results are just the tip of the iceberg,” said Craig Hilton-Taylor, who manages the list. He said “many more millions” of species that have yet to be assessed could also be under serious threat.

The only mammal to be added to the list this year is the Eastern Voalavo, a rodent that lives in the mountainous forests of Madagascar. IUCN classified it as “endangered” - two steps from extinction in the wild - because its habitat is being destroyed by slash-and-burn farming.

The red list already includes species such as the tiger, of which only 3,200 are thought to exist in the wild.