As part of the 16th Biodiversity Monitoring System (BMS), the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Negros Island Region (DENR NIR) will conduct its first synchronized BMS, or hornbill count, in the three protected areas in NIR.
Volunteers and trained participants are invited to join the event in the Balinsasayao Twin Lakes Natural Park on June 1, Mt. Kanlaon Natural Park on June 9, and the Northern Negros Natural Park on June 20.
The activity is being conducted in partnership with the Philippines Biodiversity Conservation Foundation (PBCFI), the Provincial Environment Management Office (PEMO) of Negros Occidental, the Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD) of Negros Oriental, the Negros Oriental Tourism Office, the Negros Occidental Tourism Division, the Negros Bird Conservation Society (NBCS), provinces of Negros Occidental and Oriental, the Protected Area Management Board of each protected area.
The Biodiversity Monitoring System began in 2001 and is the longest running biodiversity monitoring in protected areas in the Philippines. The monitoring has been implemented in different protected areas across the country, together with representatives from different stakeholders in each protected area. The data collected enables to support the conservation and management of the park to improve local resources management.
This year, for the first time, the event is open to the public. DENR and PBCFI are conducting training on BMS, participated by different local government units within the different protected areas, students, non-government organizations, and different government agencies.
Trainees, or “citizen scientists,” from different instructions and organizations are required to attend BMS/hornbill count, led by DENR and PBCFI technical experts. Each citizen scientist brave enough to conquer the forest of Balinsasayao Twin Lakes Natural Park, Mt. Kanlaon Natural Park, and Northern Negros Natural Park, will be assigned to different established trails called the BMS transect lines and to count all the wildlife, particularly birds, which are instrumental in identifying conservation management to immense the threat of extinction.
Negros island is blessed by a number of endemic and threatened species, including the endangered Visayan hornbill (Penelopides panini), the endangered Negros striped babbler (Zosterornis nigrorum), the Flame-templed Babbler (Dasycrotapha speciosa), the endangered White-throated Jungle Flycatcher (Vauriella albigularis), the critically endangered Rufous Headed Hornbill or Walden’s hornbill (Rhabdotorrhinus waldeni), the critically endangered Negros bleeding-heart (Gallicolumba keayi), the critically endangered, the believed to be extinct Negros fruit dove (Ptilinopus arcanus), and many more threatened species.
BMS will also focus on how population changes during breeding season and non-breeding season. We will count all the species observed in each transect; however, we will highlight birds since they are the early warning indicator for the health of our globally-important protected areas of NIR. This is the first step in knowing what is happening in our protected areas.
PBCFI and DENR believe “counting is the first stage in learning how to be involved in environmental concerns that are heavily affecting our biodiversity and, in this way, we know how to protect their habitat.”
By protecting biodiversity we are also protecting our fellow Negrenses. (PR)