Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-5nwft Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-10T15:37:25.357Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Sibuyan Island in the Philippines – threatened and in need of conservation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2009

S. M. Goodman
Affiliation:
Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605, USA.
N. R. Ingle
Affiliation:
Environmental Research Division, PO Box 2232, 1062 Manila, Philippines.
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

In the spring of 1992 a group of zoologists completed a faunal survey of Sibuyan Island, a small mountainous island in the central Philippines. This island, which is oceanic in origin and during the Pleistocene at least was not connected to any other island mass, has an exceptional amount of intact primary forest, including lowland forest, a habitat that has all but been destroyed in the Philippines. The mammalian fauna of Sibuyan Island is exceptionally high in endemic species and also contains many other species that are threatened throughout the Philippines. Current logging operations severely threaten the remaining areas of lowland forest on the island. With forests of the Philippines under intense pressure, the most realistic hope for conservation lies in the protection of forests on islands where the population and political pressures are less intense. Sibuyan Island is an excellent candidate for such initiative.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Fauna and Flora International 1993

References

Anonymous. 1989. Municipal Profile, Politico-socio-economic and Comprehensive Development Plan. Municipality of Magdiwang, Magdiwang, Province of Romblon.Google Scholar
Brown, W.C. and Alcala, A.C. 1970. The zoogeography of the herpetofauna of the Philippine Islands, a fringing archipelago. Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. 38, 105130.Google Scholar
Brown, W.H. 1919. Vegetation of Philippine Mountains. Bureau of Printing, Manila.Google Scholar
Dickinson, E.C., Kennedy, R.S. and Parkes, K.C. 1991. The Birds of the Philippines. British Ornithologists' Union Checklist No. 12.Google Scholar
Forbes, R.D. 1956. Forestry Handbook. The Ronald Press Company, New York.Google Scholar
Goodman, S.M. and Gonzales, P.C. 1990. The birds of Mt Isarog National Park, southern Luzon, Philippines, with particular reference to altitudinal distribution. Fieldiana: Zoology, new series, No. 60.Google Scholar
Heaney, L.R. 1984. Mammals from Camiguin Island, Philippines. Proc. biol. Soc.Wash. 97, 119125.Google Scholar
Heaney, L.R. 1986. Biogeography of mammals in SE Asia: estimates of rates of colonization, extinction and speciation. Biol. J. Linnean Soc. 28, 127165.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heaney, L.R. 1991. An analysis of patterns of distribution and species richness among Philippine fruit bats (Pteropodidae). Bull. Am. Mus. nat. Hist. 206, 145167.Google Scholar
Heaney, L.R., Gonzales, P.C. and Alcala, A.C. 1987. An annotated checklist of the taxonomic and conservation status of land mammals in the Philippines. Silliman j. 34, 3266.Google Scholar
Heaney, L.R. and Heideman, P.D. 1987. Philippine Fruit Bats: endangered and extinct. Bats, 5, 35.Google Scholar
Heaney, L.R., Heideman, P.D., Rickart, E.A., Utzurrum, R.B. and Klompen, J.S.H. 1989. Elevational zonation of mammals in the central Philippines. J. Trop. Ecol. 5, 259280.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heaney, L.R. and Peterson, R.L. 1984. A new species of tube-nosed fruit bat (Nyctimene) from Negros Island, Philippines (Mammalia: Pteropodidae). Occasional Papers, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, No. 708.Google Scholar
L.R., Heaney and Ruedi, M. In press. A prel iminary analysis of biogeography and phylogeny of Crocidura from the Philippines. Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Special Publication.Google Scholar
National Mapping and Resource Information Authority. 1987. Romblon, sheet 2518, 1:250,000 series. Fort Bonifacio, Manila.Google Scholar
Whitmore, T.C. 1984. Tropical Rain Forests of the Far East, 2nd edn. Clarendon Press, Oxford.Google Scholar