Hope, love prevail in conserving critically endangered Philippine Cockatoo

• Source: http://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/984038
• Monday, May 1, 2017

By Keith Anthony S. Fabro (PNA)

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, May 1 -- Veronica Marcelo, 51, makes it a point to wake up early in the morning to go to the coconut-fringed shoreline facing the Rasa Island Wildlife Sanctuary (RIWS), the stronghold of the critically endangered Philippine Cockatoo (locally known as Katala).

She has been doing this for nearly 17 years now, bringing with her a logbook and a pen, which she use in monitoring the number of Katala moving off the island to forage for food.

Marcelo serves as a volunteer for the Sagip Katala Movement (SKM), a community-based organization formed under the Philippine Cockatoo Conservation Program (PCCP). SKM is mostly composed of women, who devote a fraction of their time looking after this threatened bird species that visits the coastal barangay of Panacan every day.

“I manually count the Katala I see flying over and perching on the coconut trees,” says Marcelo. “I don’t find it mundane. When you’re used to doing this task and truly fall in love with it – your day won’t be complete without attending to it.”

Rasa Island lies one kilometer off the coast of Barangay Panacan in Narra, a first-class town in southern Palawan. From the mainland, travelers are always stunned by its striking verdant vegetation of intact mangroves set against the azure sky and cerulean sea backdrops.

Five wildlife wardens, who hail from the indigenous group Tagbanua, are staying there to guard the 1,983-hectare island against unruly poachers.

Interestingly, they themselves were once wildlife poachers. Their change of heart however, was caused to the Katala Foundation, Inc. (KFI) which implements the PCCP since 1998. Later they opted to become wildlife protectors, to live a dignified life not just for themselves but also for their family.

Philippine Cockatoo

The endemic Philippine or Red-vented cockatoo is a small psittacine with a helmet crest and red undertail coverts.

Its white plumage is extremely conspicuous in flight and in the foliage of the lowland dipterocarp and mangrove forest habitats.

It is 12.2 inches long and has an 8.6 inches wingspan. The Katala, as it is locally called, is a social species which roosts, feeds, and flies in noisy groups but during the mating season, from March to July, pairs live apart from the flock, often reusing the same nesting tree year after year.

It is a favorite caged bird because of its ability to mimic the human voice.

Rampant poaching

Before Rasa Island was declared as a protected area, it was a silent, hapless witness to rampant hunting of the red-vented Katala birds.

Wildlife warden Reynaldo Abellar, 36, recalled that when he was 8 years old, he usually frequented the island with his grandfather to gather Katala and eventually sell them to buyers, who had been supplying the pet trade and the local demand for bush meat.

“Back then, there were days we were able to collect 30-50 heads,” Abellar recounted. “We’re not the only ones who were climbing the trees to fetch Katala as there were other outsiders who did the same.”

“It was an easy way of getting money,” said 49-year-old Lucito Dangis, another wildlife warden.

“I remember when I was young I was amazed at how my cousins were earning a huge amount of money – a Katala offspring can be sold for P50, and it can buy more kilos of rice during that time,” Dangis says.

“It all started as a 'past time' until it became a way of life. I’d been training youngsters to do the same so they can help their parents in providing food on the table,” he continues.

The island was also a place from which locals from a nearby fishing village used to cut mangroves and other tree species for fuel wood and building materials, hence reducing the number of trees, where the Katala can roost and nest.

For Abellar and Dangis, the realization had dawned on them after taking to heart what the world may stand to lose.

Those aforesaid threats, coupled with direct persecution, had caused the Katala's population to dip to as low as 23 heads.

“And surely, if we continue hunting for Katala, they will definitely vanish in the wild. And when they’re gone, you cannot bring them back anymore,” Abellar realizes.

Recovery of population

The downward trend in the Philippine Cockatoo population was averted when the PCCP entered the scene. Implemented through the non-government organization KFI, Katala’s number has grown to over 300, thus making the island as the Philippine Cockatoo Capital of the World.

“After almost 20 years of project implementation, the population increase is the tangible success indicator,” says KFI Program Manager Indira Widmann.

“From 23, now we already have at least 300 individuals of Katala here on Rasa Island.”

The upward trend is also the same in three more PCCP project sites located in Puerto Princesa City and the towns of Balabac in the south and Dumaran in the north.

Now, there is a little more than 1,000 individuals left in the world.

Aside from Katala, the island also harbors other avian species, notably the Great-billed Heron, Grey Imperial Pigeon and Mantanani Scops Owl and much more.

The immediate seas surrounding it are home to important marine species like Dugong, and Green Sea and Hawksbill Turtles, respectively.

Holistic approach

KFI believes that species conservation wouldn't be enough to ensure the survival of Katala. Equally important is the preservation of its natural habitat, which sums up the very essence of ecosystem approach that takes into consideration the environment as a whole.

“Inasmuch as we protect the Philippine Cockatoo, we are also protecting our very own survival. Through employing a holistic approach – although their habitat is the small patch of coastal, mangrove forests in this island, we are also protecting the marine environment which supports the town’s fishery production,” Widmann explained.

As a protected area declared through Presidential Proclamation No.1000, s. 2006, all kinds of destructive activities are prohibited in the island and its surrounding waters. On top of that, this wildlife sanctuary is also designated as core or no-take zone in the province’s Environmentally Critically Areas Network map.

Synergy among stakeholders

Narra town Mayor Lucena Demaala says these designations have further been enforced with the rigid implementation of municipal ordinances stopping cyanide and dynamite fishing around the shallow coral island, and prohibiting the cutting of trees and banning illegal entry and occupation in the island itself.

“Katala is worth conserving for the future generation,” Demaala says.

Conservation education in schools and at the community level continues to encourage the people to share a place with this adorable bird which started to move to the mainland in the 2000s and forage malunggay seedlings at the locals’ backyard, says KFI Field Operations Coordinator Siegfred Diaz.

“People get to know that the existence of Katala, as an indicator species dwelling in lowland forests, tells us how healthy our environment is,” Diaz says.

“With that, they even more appreciate it flying and even visiting their backyard from time to time.”

Just like in other PCCP sites across Palawan, the Narra town’s LGU gives a counterpart through an annual budget appropriation in which incentives for wildlife wardens come from.

This feat could never have been achieved without the active participation of all sectors involved. “It's not about us. This success is a result of the concerted effort of the local government units, international funders, local communities and concerned government agencies,” Widmannsaid.

As for Marcelo, she vowed to continue her volunteer job until the very end.

"I'm getting older and older every day, so strolling by the beach and under the shade of coconut trees, taking in the sea breeze really help me keep fit. Here I got more friends young and old alike and they respect me," she said.

"As long as I can, I'll keep going, I'll keep on telling the younger generation to live in harmony with Katala. Aren't we proud, of all the places in the world, they can be seen here? It's our country's living treasure."