HIDEAWAY IN MINDORO
BEACH LOVERS AND DIVING ENTHUSIASTS have a new hideaway with the introduction of watersports at Harka Piloto Island in Calapan, the provincial capital city of Oriental Mindoro.
A marine protected area established in 2004, the 37-hectare uninhabited island lies at the northeast portion of Calapan mainland fronting Kamasuhan Rock.
Located well within the Coral Triangle, the center of the world’s marine biodiversity, the island teems with 64 percent living coral cover (48 percent hard corals, 14 percent soft corals, 1 percent nutrient indicator algae, 1 percent sponge and 1 percent others) based on a Vulnerability Assessment.
Island hopping and snorkeling tours are currently offered, while scuba diving can be pre-arranged. Occasional assessment dives are conducted for cleanup and to check on the condition of the corals.
The uninhabited island is co-managed by the Harka Piloto MPA Management Council, Kabuhayan at Kalikasan para sa Mamamayan ng Barangay Lazareto (Kakambal), Bantay Dagat, Barangay Council of Lazareto and the Calapan City Fisheries Management Office.
Kakambal, the people’s organization stakeholder, is supported with livelihood assistance as conservation incentive (goat raising) with funding and technical support from Malampaya Foundation Inc., PATH Foundation Philippines Inc. and the city government of Calapan.
In 2007, Harka Piloto was named finalist in the Para El MAR Most Outstanding MPA Awards, a program of the Marine Protected Areas Support Network (MSN) which recognizes the best practices in the management of marine protected areas (MPAs) across the country.
The island will serve as an added attraction to the neighboring town of Puerto Galera, popular as an international scuba diving mecca and is a member of the Parisbased and Unesco-recognized World’s Most Beautiful Bays Club.
It will also complement Calapan’s positioning as an urban eco-tourism destination in Oriental Mindoro with the presence of the Caluangan Lake, the Calapan Recreational and Zoological Park and the 42-hectare Silonay Mangrove Conservation Area, a joint undertaking with the provincial government and the US-based Conservation International.
A major port within the Strong Republic Nautical Highway, Calapan provides a tourism road link which cuts through to the Visayas and Mindanao.