Perilous
Times
Wild Bird stocks rapidly vanishing in the Philippines
by Staff Writers
Candaba, Philippines (AFP) Jan 25, 2011
The number of birds flying south to important wintering grounds in
the Philippines has fallen sharply this year, with experts saying
the dramatic demise of wetlands and hunting are to blame.
Despite some harsh, cold weather across the Eurasian landmass,
some waterbirds that usually migrate in huge flocks to the
tropical islands have been completely absent, said
Philippine-based Danish ornithologist Arne Jensen.
"The flyway populations of several waterbird species are in
constant and dramatic decline," Jensen, who advises the Philippine
government on species conservation, told AFP.
"Hence the urgent need to establish real and well-managed,
hunting-free waterbird sanctuaries along the migratory flyways."
Candaba, a swamp two hours' drive north of Manila that has long
been used as a pit stop by hundreds of species as they fly
staggering distances between the Arctic Circle and Australia,
appears emblematic of the downfall.
Jensen said that bird watchers routinely counted 100,000 ducks at
Candaba in the 1980s as they stopped there for a rest while
traversing the East Asian-Australasian flyway.
But volunteers recorded just 8,725 waterbirds and 41 species
during the annual census last weekend, Wild Bird Club of the
Philippines president Michael Lu told AFP at Candaba at the end of
the count.
Northern pintails, common pochards, and green-winged teals were
absent, and just one tufted duck was seen, while numbers for
northern shovellers shrank and only garganeys were easily seen
along with resident Philippine ducks.
Lu said the number of waterbirds counted at Candaba was down from
more than 11,000 last year.
"The main threat is hunting," said Lu, amid occasional loud bangs
that were apparently gunfire or firecrackers set off by local
residents seeking to flush out the birds.
But Lu also pointed to the dramatic shrinkage in the size of the
swamp over the past 50 years as the region was converted into
farmland, mainly rice fields.
The swamp two generations ago covered 27,000 hectares (66,690
acres), but it is now just 77 hectares -- or less than one percent
of its original size -- according to figures provided by Lu,
Jensen and the local government.
Hunters, farmers, and watersports also threaten Paoay Lake,
another wild bird habitat in the far north of the Philippines that
is close to southern China.
The lake lacks surface plant life after the late dictator
Ferdinand Marcos ordered the water lilies removed so he could
jetski from his lakeside mansion, while a former local official
used to shoot ducks there, Lu said.
Since the water lily purge, water levels have continued to drop as
farmers siphoned off water to irrigate farmland, while poor
residents around the lake cut down trees, which they burnt to sell
as charcoal, local bird watchers said.
The government has banned hunting of ducks on the lake, but things
could still get worse with plans for a wakeboarding park, Lu said.
In the annual Paoay bird census this month, fewer than 700
waterbirds were counted compared with more than a thousand the
previous year, said Elsie Nolasco, an official at the local
environment ministry office.
The scenarios at the Paoay and Candaba wetlands are a microcosm of
the general state around Asia, said Carlo Custodio, head of the
coastal and marine management office at the Philippines'
environment ministry.
"If you look down the coasts from China, South Korea, Japan,
Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and down to Australia, you can see
fast economic development, especially in China," Custodio told
AFP.
"In the course of this development, habitats are destroyed as big
segments of the populations move to the coasts. This also
increases the chances that the birds will be hunted."
Environment group Wetlands International reported last year that
waterbird populations in Asia were shrinking at a faster rate than
anywhere else in the world because their habitats were being
destroyed.
"The combination of rapid economical growth and weak conservation
efforts (in Asia) appears to be lethal," Wetlands International
said.