Palawan, a group of islands in the Philippines, is breathtakingly beautiful. Home to underground rivers, turquoise coastlines and lush mountain peaks, earned the title of the country’s “last ecological frontier” .
The archipelago paradise did not go unnoticed. The entire Palawan area, with more than 1,700 islands, has been designated as a reserve for biosphere by UNESCO and also houses two world heritage sites: the Puerto-Princesa Subterranean River National Park and the Tubbataha Reefs.
However, despite these designations, threats such as mining, illegal wildlife trade, climate change and deforestation still exist. According to the Global Forest WatchPalawan had the largest loss of forest cover in the country between 2001 and 2023.
Conservationist Karina May Reyes, who refers to herself as KM, is on a mission to protect the archipelago, with a small team of people who form the nonprofit Center for Sustainability PH (CS).
“Palawan is super special because, from the mountain to the reef, you find untouched landscapes — mountains that still maintain their original forest cover to coral reefs that have incredible biodiversity, be it manta rays, whale sharks, tiger sharks or turtles,” she told CNN.
She explains that tropical forests covered about 90% from the Philippinesbut now there are less than 3% intact primary forest — most of them in Palawan. “Our mission is to conserve the last remaining 3% of the Philippines’ pristine reserves through the creation of national parks,” she says.
Untouched peaks
The team’s first project began in 2014, focusing on Cleopatra’s Needle, one of the mystical mountains on the main island of Palawan, outside the provincial capital city of Puerto Princesa.
Named for the obelisk-shaped natural stone on its highest peak, it is one of the oldest and most diverse forests in all of the Philippines and serves as a refuge for endemic species endangered species on the island, such as the Palawan hornbill, the boa constrictor and the pangolin.
This area is also the ancestral territory of the indigenous Batak tribe, who depend on the natural resources of the surrounding reserve to sustain their livelihoods.
“If we didn’t have the indigenous Batak still here on earth, we wouldn’t continue to have the forests we have. It is a result and blessing of their stewardship over the area that we still have access to these reserves and they have not been destroyed,” says Reyes.
Working closely with the Batak people, the Center for Sustainability PH (CS) collected data about the area, building a case for its protection. In 2017, the hard work paid off: the entire Cleopatra’s Needle area – more than 41,000 hectares – was declared critical habitat
The designation includes the prohibition from mineral extraction, logging, mining and wildlife trade.
Now, the team’s focus has turned to Sultan’s Peak, a mountain in the southern half of the island of Palawan that does not yet have formal protection. Rich in nickel, an essential component in clean energy technologies such as electric vehicles, wind turbines and solar panels, the area is threatened by mining.
“The area we are trying to protect is about 8,000 hectares of pristine rainforest, plus an incredible watershed system, and is completely unexplored,” says Reyes.
The Center for Sustainability PH (CS) team is working to document the region’s flora and fauna to make the case for their protection. To do this, they mobilized a network of citizen scientists who take photos of plants and animals, which can be uploaded to a database on the iNaturalist platform, an open source tool that identifies species.
“We are building a database on the biodiversity of this area,” says Aubrey Jayne Padilla, coordinator of the CS research program. “The local community is involved in compiling the data… We document everything we see on the trail.”
Reyes hopes they will be able to secure the area within three years. However, even after gaining community support and gathering a variety of scientific data, challenges remain.
“Ultimately, if you don’t have the politicians and decision makers on board, then there will be no one to pass this law,” she says.
Reyes sees part of his role as communicating the broader value of the field. “Protecting these areas is so important, not only for biodiversity, but also to protect vulnerable communities from climate change,” he says.
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This content was originally published in Meet the woman fighting for the last forests on islands in the Philippines on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
Charles Grill is a tech-savvy writer with over 3 years of experience in the field. He writes on a variety of technology-related topics and has a strong focus on the latest advancements in the industry. He is connected with several online news websites and is currently contributing to a technology-focused platform.
