IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Cox, R. | |
| The conservation status of biological resources in the Philippines | |
| 1988 Full Book | |
This report discusses the conservation status of the biological resources of the Philippine archipelago. These include a wide variety of tropical moist forest formations, a rich and diverse assemblage of faunal species many of which are endemic, and several important marine and coastal ecotypes. Tropical forests originally covered most of the Philippines but human population density is very high on all the major islands (with the exception of Palawan) and much of the natural vegetation has now been destroyed or modified by slash-and-burn cultivators. This form of forest clearance is not controlled in any way and is mostly illegal. Estimates of the rate of habitat destruction vary but official figures indicate that in 1981 there were only 2.2 million ha of undisturbed virgin rain forest in the Philippines and that these were being felled at a rate of approximately 170,000 ha per annum. Where native vegetation survives it consists mainly of mixed dipterocarp, tropical montane, mossy (subalpine), molave and pine forest formations. The forests of the Philippines support a fauna that is characterized by an unusually high percentage of species endemism. Of approximately 89 species of indigenous non-volant land mammals identified from the archipelago at least 70 (or 78.7 %) are found nowhere else in the world. |
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