Birds,
bandits meet with ominous consequences
On Feb. 1, on the isolated backwater
Philippine island of Tawi-Tawi, two European men went hunting for some of the
world’s rarest birds. Their passion as birdwatchers got them captured by five
gunmen who took them hostage and destroyed their cameras, which contained proof
of what only a few people in the world have ever seen.
Some 5,000 Filipino soldiers have been
searching the region for the two, 52-year-old Elwold Hom of Holland and Lorenzo
Vinciguerra, 47, of Switzerland. The army believes they are somewhere within
2,000 hectares of jungle on Tawi-Tawi. Meantime the kidnapers – or people
posing as the kidnapers – have demanded that the police and army pull out of
the area, a haven for Islamic separatists. Others suspect the kidnapers could
be common bandits who sell their prey to Islamist rebels.
The story thus has several different facets–
of the inability of the government to impose law and order on a region with a
reputation for kidnaping, piracy and conflict, of the possibility that the Moro
National Liberation Front or Abu Sayyaf captured the two as a part of their
campaign to drive the government out of Mindanao – or of the foolhardy bravery
of birdwatchers the world over who are willing to risk life and limb for their
so-called life lists of observed birds.
In the case of Elwold Hom and Lorenzo
Vinciguerra, it is the latter that matters. They are among avid birdwatchers
who come to the Philippines against the odds, although they appear to be the
first to be captured. The Wild Bird Club of the Philippines is considerably
more prudent, not allowing its 200-odd members to stray into regions known for
having been the site of battles and rebel strongholds.
Their Filipino guide and photographer, Ivan
Sarenas, a noted birdwatcher in his own right and a member of the Wild Bird
Club, escaped by leaping from the outrigger and swimming to safety where local
fishermen rescued him.
“They wanted to see the world’s rarest
hornbills before they grow old,” Sarenas said. He is one of two people
previously known to have photographed the Sulu Hornbills, luminous black birds
that can only be found on the island and are believed to be the last of their
kind left on earth.
There are thought to be about 20 pairs of the hornbills
left, according to a survey made about 10 years ago. The birds have been
exterminated in Sulu, a chain of islands near Borneo – according to the ‘red
list’ of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Sulu and
Tawi-Tawi supposedly are the only two places on earth to find the hornbills and
the stunning Bleeding Heart pigeon as well, which has not been seen or
collected since the early 1900s.
Paradoxically, it is these dangerous regions
that make areas of the Philippines some of the best birdwatching areas
anywhere. It is where less dedicated individuals would never dare set foot. The
abduction of the birdwatchers has raised the number of foreigners kidnapped in
the region since the beginning of 2011 to 10.
Five, an Australian, two Malaysian traders, an
Indian married to a Filipina and a Japanese male, are still in captivity along
with three abducted Filipinos.
The abductors of the Australian, 53-year-old
Warren Rodwell, are demanding US$2 million for his release.
Such spots actually enhance the chances of
survival of rare birds rather than in other open or populated habitats, a place
where they are likely to be hunted, poached, captured, displaced from excessive
logging and mining, and for reasons that tell the country’s culture of
destruction and lack of awareness for the wildlife.
The Mindanao south, of which Tawi-Tawi and
Sulu are a part, is host to many of the estimated 200 endemic birds in the
country, more than a third out of its total 614 species, comparably bigger than
other countries in Southeast Asia. The most famous of its birds is the
Philippine Eagle, a magnificent bird that is one of the three largest eagles on
earth. It is also known as the Monkey-Eating Eagle because of its hunting
prowess. Others in the region include the Cinnamon Ibon, the Red-Eared
Parrotfinch, the Black-Headed Tailorbird.
But with the loss of habitat left unchecked,
the Philippines has become the zone other migratory birds avoid, judging from
the falling numbers of their species over the years – migrants from the
Eurasian mainland and some from Siberia.
Anna Gonzales, president of the Wild Bird Club
of the Philippines, offered a striking theory as to why conflict areas are
safer for the birds.
“Perhaps the armed rebels will not use their
bullets on the birds,” she said. Offbeat as that may sound, it lends some
reason as to why the treasures of the Philippine wildlife are forcing the best
of the naturalist adventurers to take risks.
In many parts of the gun-happy country, it is
common to shoot whatever moves, a predatory human predilection carried over
from the colonial years and currently ingrained as a disturbing habit in regard
to the life of the birds, other conservationists say. In schools, Filipinos
were generally taught about the prominent wildlife elsewhere but not of their
own. This and poverty have worsened the fate of the Philippine birds.
The Philippine Wildlife Conservation and
Protection Act calls for a state policy to guard the wildlife species and their
habitats for ecological balance and biodiversity, but little of that has been
shown in action. One example is the wetlands of Manila Bay, of which one part
had been declared a conservation area for bird-watching and biodiversity until
recently, when a ‘master plan’ to reclaim 600 hectares of the bay stretching to
both north and south surfaced. Environmentalists, growing in small numbers, are
hoping to stop it with protests.
There’s much more of the country’s 7,000
islands to see for birding, but it is largely a struggle for enthusiasts. It
means going far and deep into the thickets of the forests, with birds fleeing
and hiding out of sight in the open space for fear of being caught or hunted.
At best birds frequently seen in the cities are the Eurasian Sparrows, commonly
known as the ‘mice with wings’ that are garbage scavengers.
Ornithologists say the Philippines remains
‘under-birded,’ meaning there is more potential to be studied, that birds like
hornbills, woodpeckers, and others could be broken down into sub-species
endemic to the country.
“Has it been ingrained in the birds that the
Philippines is a dangerous place?” asked Michael Lu, a businessman and founding
member of the bird club. “You can go anywhere in this country and you will see
habitat destruction.” He has plenty examples to cite, including a former paper
mill zone where hunters and trespassers used to kill hornbills, filling up
sacks with the dead to be consumed as food or sold in markets.
Criselda Yabes
Asia Sentinel
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