EDITORIAL- Endangered wildlife

There was some good news as the Philippines joined the international community yesterday in marking World Wildlife Day. On the eve of the annual event, the chair of the Senate committee on environment and natural resources, Cynthia Villar, announced that developers had called off reclamation proposals for a marine and bird sanctuary in Manila Bay.

This paves the way for the development of the area, visible from the Coastal Road from Parañaque to Las Piñas, into an ecotourism zone. The mangrove forest that has sprung up in the area is home to thousands of numerous vulnerable and threatened wildlife including the Philippine Duck and certain species of egrets and other birds.

The project deserves public support. The Las Piñas-Parañaque Critical Habitat and Ecotourism Area, which covers about 175 hectares of the bay, is the last bird sanctuary in Metro Manila and the only one in an urban setting in the country. Four years ago this month, the area was included in the Ramsar List of Wetlands of International Importance – areas of rich biodiversity that require special protection.

Thanks to heightened public awareness about the need to preserve wildlife, progress has been made in recent years to save species endemic to the country from extinction. The Philippine Eagle has been successfully bred in captivity, although an adult raptor released into the wild by conservationists was later found dead with a gunshot wound. Some success has also been achieved in saving the tarsier and tamaraw from endangered status.

Many other species of Philippine flora and fauna, however, remain endangered or vulnerable. The animals include the warty pigs of Cebu and Negros, the naked-backed fruit bat, red-vented cockatoo, Hawksbill sea turtle and Mindoro bleeding heart dove. Pangolins and seahorses, collected for their supposed medicinal properties, are rapidly being depleted.

Human activities and climate change can be a lethal combination for threatened creatures. In marking Wildlife Day this year, the United Nations is hoping that the youth will take a more active role in conservation efforts. “Listen to the Young Voices” is the theme for this year as the UN moves to save thousands of species around the world.

The UN adopted the theme after noting a declining sense of personal responsibility for wildlife and the environment as a whole among the world’s 1.8 billion people aged between 10 and 24. Young people, however, aren’t the only ones responsible for preserving wildlife and the environment. People of all ages are custodians of the rich blessings of the planet.