Dr. Kent Carpenter, a well-known marine biologist and fish taxonomist called the coral reefs of the Verde Island Passage as the Amazon of the Sea. The Philippines he said (VIP in particular), was the centre of the centre of marine biodiversity.

The Philippines, with Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor Leste and the Solomon Islands, form the Coral Triangle. The Coral Triangle was said to be the centre of marine biodiversity as it holds more than 30% of the world’s coral reefs. Over 600 coral species and 3,000 reef fish species are found in the Coral Triangle. Whereas, the Philippines and Indonesia has been dubbed as the top two countries with reefs with the highest biodiversity.

Coral reefs play important ecological and economical roles. It serves as buffer zone that protects coastlines from wave action and erosion. It is one of the most diverse and productive ecosystems. It plays a crucial role on fishery production as it also serves as a nursery, feeding ground and important habitat to various species of reef fishes and other invertebrates. They provide various livelihood opportunities from fisheries to tourism.

Coral reefs are also one of the most sensitive ecosystems. They are limited by depth and thrive in well lit, shallow waters of the tropical oceans. They do not thrive in areas with high sediment inputs, because they are prone to smothering. They are sensitive to temperature, thus they are bound in equatorial waters by the 20 °C isotherm. The optimal reef development occurs in waters where in the mean annual temperature ranges from 23 to 25 °C. They are intolerant to significant changes in salinity that is why they are absent in areas such as river mouths due to the high freshwater influx.

The Coral Triangle is one of the top priorities of research and conservation actions to date. This is due to the Southeast Asian nations that continue to face development and exploitation pressures, despite the awareness of coral reefs’ ecological and economic importance. To date, common threats are due to human activities that are hardly mitigated. It may not be as rampant as it used to be decades ago, but coral reefs are still threatened by illegal fishing methods, pollution, land-based activities and coral and reef fish harvesting for aquarium fishery. Adding more stress is the impending threats of climate change.

Bleaching used to be a major threat as it wiped out large areas of reefs during the mass bleaching event in 1997 to 1998. Bleaching occurs due to the increase in sea surface temperatures. Another cause of bleaching that is being considered is increased irradiance or light exposure. Increases in both temperature and irradiance during hot periods disrupt the photosynthetic symbionts of the corals – the zooxanthellae, by inhibiting photosynthesis and other stress processes.

Scientists recently have seen that other climate change effects apart from irradiance and increased sea surface temperatures that have deleterious effects on coral reefs are increasing strength and frequency of storms, and ocean acidification. Storms and typhoons cause physical damage to reefs. Where as ocean acidification, or decrease in seawater pH, inhibits coral calcification and thus damages the corals’ skeletal structure and resilience.

Damaging coral communities will result to a shift to algal dominance. Reef fishes and other invertebrates will lose their habitat and shelter. Modelling studies have shown that in worst case scenarios, local extinctions of sensitive, rare and highly specialised species will occur. Eventually this will become global in scale. Other fishes and invertebrates will have reduced population sizes which will lead to reduced reproduction and recruitment and longer recovery times. Ultimately, the ecosystems will become less ecologically complex, which will result to reduction of biodiversity. Reduction on biodiversity, will then lead to the loss of ecosystem services, which will lessen livelihood opportunities and sources.

As Filipinos, our responsibility for our natural resources should not just end in awe and being proud that our country is rich in biodiversity and natural resources. We need to get more involved as time is running out. It is not yet too late to do something. We should not depend on foreign organisations, international and local scientists and environmental advocates to do all the studying and lobbying. We as a society should think that we still want younger generations to continue to be proud that our country’s coral reefs are considered an equal to the Amazon Forest.

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Note: If you have any queries, please include your email address in your comments so that I would be able to write to you personally. And please write in English or Filipino. I could read Spanish, Portugese, and a bit of French, but I prefer English. Thanks! – V

References:

Carpenter, K. et al. 2008. One-third of reef-building corals face elevated extinction risk from climate change and local impacts. Science. 321: 560-563.

Hoegh-Guldberg, O. 1999. Climate change, coral bleaching and the future of the

world’s coral reefs. Mar. Freshwater Res. 50: 839-866.

Hoegh-Guldberg, O., P.J. Mumby, A.J. Hooten, R.S. Steneck, P. Greenfield, E. Gomez,

C.D. Harvell, P.F. Sale, A.J. Edwards, K. Caldeira, N. Knowlton, C.N, Eakin, R.

Iglesias-Prieto, N. Muthiga, R.H. Bradbury, A. Dubi, M.E. Hatziolos.  2007. Coral reefs under rapid climate change and ocean acidification. Science. 318: 1737-1742

IPCC, 2001: Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, 881pp.

Wilkinson, C.R. 2000. Status of coral reefs of the world. Australian Institute of Marine Science. Cape Ferguson, Queensland. 376 p.

Inquirer.Net: Senate approves renewable energy bill on 3rd reading
ABS-CBN News: Senate OKs renewable energy bill
BusinessWorld: Renewable energy bill OK’d by Senate; bicam is next step
Manila Bulletin: Senate passes Renewable Energy bill
GMANews.TV: Senate approves clean energy bill, seen to cut oil dependence
The Manila Times: Senate approves Renewable Energy bill

Some people in the Senate gallery clapped, something that’s usually frowned upon during session. Nobody tried to shush them, I mean us

Image: A father-and-daughter who signed our support RE Bill board during the RE COalition exhibit at Greenbelt a few months ago

“Over the past two decades, the Abuan River has been a highway for contraband wood logged in the precious forests of the Sierra Madre . Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of bugadors skilled in the ways of a treacherous river have made their living here, braving the rocky currents to supply narra, lauan and other precious wood species to Isabela’s famed furniture industry. But the trade has long been illegal and is wreaking havoc on what is one of the planet’s most valuable forest ecosystems. It became an established trade and livelihood because no one before Padaca has seriously tried to stop it. As her task force rounds up the wood, she is under pressure from other politicians in the province to just let it go for another year.”

Howie Severino blogs about his team’s foray into the Sierra Madre, observing Isabela governor and 2008 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee Grace Padaca as she went after illegal logging activities happening in the  Abuan River.  The result is a documentary airing on I-Witness Monday midnight (Philippine time, a day or two later on Pinoy Tv overseas): Si Gob at ang mga Bugador.

Read his full post here.

My sister flew home from Taiwan for a visit a few weeks ago, and she alerted me that Cebu Pacific’s in-flight magazine contained an article on Dr. Laurence Heaney. Fortunately, the article is available online and I didn’t have to book a flight to be able to read the feature on one of my favorite scientists. You can read the article here, or you can also check out my own profile on Larry Heaney, which I did when I was still with Haribon. I’m posting it here in a sudden fit of nostalgia and affection for Dr. Heaney and his work. You’ll see why.

“Meeting Larry”
Originally published in Haring Ibon magazine, 3rd Quarter 2003

It was a familiar but still captivating story. I watched across the dinner table as biologist Laurence Heaney related the details to one of Haribon’s board members:  how a rat specimen sat unidentified for 20 years at the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History until somebody realized it was an unknown species; how a team of scientists came to Mt. Isarog and “re-discovered” it; how they despaired at trying to feed it everything in the forest until they discovered that it eats practically nothing but earthworms.  It happened in 1988, and he must have told the story and written about it dozens of times, but to hear him tell it he might as well have just come home from the mountains still flushed with the joy of discovering a new species.

“I went to the Philippines for the same reason that Charles Darwin went to the Galapagos Islands. I wanted to know where the species live, how do they live, who their relatives are… to study biodiversity – where they come from.”

The Galapagos Islands, of course, are known for harboring amazing biodiversity, and Charles Darwin was its most famous visitor.  But in the Philippines, Larry Heaney has found his own Galapagos.

“The Galapagos Islands are dull and uninteresting compared to the Philippines,” says Heaney.  “The Philippines has fantastic diversity, both in plants and animals.  The level of endemism is certainly the highest in the world.”

He should know what he is talking about.  Larry started working in the Philippines in 1981, and has done studies up and down the archipelago, from Mt. Balbalasang in Kalinga, Mt. Isarog in the Bicol region, the islands of Sibuyan, Leyte, Maripipi, Biliran, Camiguin and Negros, down to Mt. Kitanglad in Bukidnon.  He comes to the country almost once a year, staying for a month or so and spending most of that time in the mountains.  “When I get here, I tend not to stay in Manila too long, I want to get into the field right away.” He has worked with various Philippine institutions and individuals, not to mention ingenious local guides and trappers with the knack for finding the most elusive creatures in the forest. Not a few former and present Haribon scientists – Blas Tabaranza, Aldrin Mallari, Mymy Tabao, Genevieve Gee, Nina Ingle, Danny Balete – have spent some time with Larry in the field, either as students or eventually, as collaborators.

The places he’s worked in are areas of great biodiversity in their own right, affording Heaney the perfect laboratories for his studies.  For his interest is not only in cataloguing biodiversity, but studying the long-term evolutionary factors and processes by which all those species came to be there in the first place.

“The history of the earth is a wonderful, fascinating thing…understanding how the different pieces all fit together… [it’s like] a big puzzle.”  Climate, geological developments, land areas, habitat types, all play a role in the biodiversity that evolves in a given area.

What emerges, among other things, is a fascinating story of species development and diversity that branches out and grows and takes on numerous dimensions as millions of years pass.  For example, what started out as 2 rodent species twelve million years ago has branched out all around the archipelago to roughly 40 species with an amazing range of characteristics  – those that crawl and burrow on the ground and those that dwell on tree-tops, those that hunt insects and those that dig for earthworms, those with delicate pointed snouts and those with nicely-rounded, furred faces.

As Heaney put it, it’s like investigating the end twigs of the tree of life and finding out that it has turned into an entire branch, a branch that is restricted to the Philippines.  “It’s that kind of story that makes the Philippines unique.”

His most recent trip to the country was spent in Balbalasang-Balbalan National Park in Kalinga Province, to continue studies began in late 1999 by the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History and Haribon Foundation (see Haring Ibon 2nd quarter 2003).

“Balbalasang-Balbalan is the most beautiful place in the Philippines…it’s gorgeous…its wildlife is the most abundant anywhere in the country,” Larry enthuses, comparing the place to a “giant garden.” It is also one of the places where the community, mostly of the indigenous Banao tribe, have retained a firm hold on the management and protection of the forest, applying their own methods of resource management and retaining their cultural independence.

Places like Balbalasang-Balbalan are one of country’s beacons of hope. “In many cases, things are not as bad as we think,” Larry notes.  “Research work has been important in developing an accurate picture…there are more forests than we thought.” Research has also shown that some species have the ability to survive in secondary or recovering logged forests, buying us some time as we strive to rehabilitate degraded habitats.

“The threats are very real and visible,” Larry says, “but there is absolutely no reason to think that there is no hope.”  He also noted that Philippine biodiversity is now becoming more famous and more appreciated, and that the level of awareness and public interest on the environment has also been increasing.

In the meantime, Larry Heaney and his Filipino collaborators continue their work in weaving the tapestry of Philippine biodiversity.  “It would have been easy for me to get projects elsewhere,” he says.  “But the story that can be told here, and we’re in the process of telling, is going to be one of the most interesting and instructive stories of biodiversity anywhere in the world.”

Postscript:

Since the above article was written five years ago, numerous new species have been discovered by Larry Heaney as well as by other research teams all over the Philippines.  The story is still being told.