Gov’t bats for conservation of endangered babblers in Negros

The government has appealed for the immediate conservation of endangered bird babblers in Negros Island, amid the crucial biodiversity preservation due to rural economy’s sustainable development.

The babblers, scientifically called Zosteropidae, at the Mt. Kanlaon Natural Park in Negros Island are threatened by bird hunting, illegal cutting for timber, firewood and charcoal production, human-induced air pollution, and conversion of forest to agricultural commodities, according to the Department of Environment and Natural ResourcesEcosystems Research and Development Bureau (ERDB).

In the ERDB-published Sylvatrop Journal special issue with the Biodiversity Conservation Society of the Philippines, experts revealed that both Negros babblers — the flame-templed babbler or Dasycrotaphaspeciosa, which is endemic to Negros and Panay, and Negros-striped babbler or Stachyrisnigrorum, which is endemic to Negros, have been classified as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

As of 2015, BirdLife International indicated that the population of Dasycrotaphaspeciosa in Mt. Kanlaon ranged from 2,500 to 9,999 individuals.

This was greater than the 600-1,700 mature individuals for Stachyrisnigro- rum.

ERDB believes that the reduction in population, threatened at 50-90 percent of the bird species still continues.

"(We should) intensify regular forest monitoring in Mt. Kanlaon; establish and revisit biodiversity monitoring system for population of babbler species," Sylvatrop authors Andrew Reintar, Shaira Grace BPios, and Dennis Warguez said.

They also pressed for conservation initiatives to start and education materials to raise public awareness on the biodiversity threat. (Ellalyn De Vera-Ruiz)