Escalante: The sanctuary is located on ‘prime property’
By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

An online campaign has been launched in response to plans to transfer the Negros Forest Park, formerly known as the Negros Forest and Ecological Foundation-Biodiversity Conservation Center, from the Negros Occidental Provincial Government complex to the Panaad Park and Stadium in Bacolod City’s Barangay Mansilingan.
According to the petition, the park is “pegged to be demolished for the sake of progress.”
“The provincial government has plans to re-purpose the area and forego the importance of green spaces in the city,” the petition noted. “This park is not your regular green space.”
“This park is home to Negros’ endemic tree and wildlife species, with successful births of our critically endangered wildlife—you can not put a price tag on its importance,” the document added. “This move will disrupt an already thriving habitat for these animals and the current barren relocation site will take decades to replicate what is already there.”
They characterize the Negros Forest Park as a “living museum” that has “educated generations on the importance of conservation,” along with “a place for the young and old to connect with our island’s own natural treasures.”
Outgoing Negros Occidental Provincial Board Member Salvador Escalante, Jr, who is the incoming Cadiz City mayor, called the site where the wildlife sanctuary sits “prime property.”
He went on to say the organization running the park, a non-profit organization, “can no longer sustain its daily operations.”
Among the endemic wildlife found at the Negros Forest Park include the Visayan warty pig; Visayan spotted deer; Philippine sailfin lizard; Negros boobook, or bukaw; pink-bellied imperial pigeon; buff-eared brown dove; bleeding heart pigeon; and white-bellied woodpecker./DGB, WDJ