Coastal management system cites Baliangao for documenting wildlife in its protected area

By Rutchie C. Aguhob

Tuesday 31st of July 2012

BALIANGAO, Misamis Occidental, July 31 (PIA) -- The Protected Area, Wildlife and Coastal Zone Management System (PAWCZMS)-10 has cited the Baliangao protected landscape and seascape (BPLS) for documenting almost 1,500 living organisms and wildlife in its area.

“This is the first of such project done in the region and we are very glad that you have taken the initiative to do so,” Belen O. Daba, regional technical director of PAWCZMS, Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)-10, said during a recent meeting of the BLPS board.

The board is composed of the BLPS protected area (PA) superintendent, village chieftains of barangays Landing, Misom, Tugas, and Sinian of Baliangao, chief of the municipal police office, municipal environment and natural resources officer, municipal agricultural office, principal of the Baliangao School of Fisheries, and a representative of the Katumanan People’s Organization.

The documentation was done by the biodiversity monitoring system (BMS) of BPLS that conducted the identification of more than 20 types of mangrove trees dominated by the bacauan and other species, namely, genus avicennia, bruguiera, ceriops, lumnitzera, sonneratia, xylocarpus, and the nypa.

Also documented were living organisms and wildlife inside the BPLS including the following trees: bakauan-lalaki, bakauan-babae and bakauan-bato, 200 each; piagau, nipa and piapi, 150 each; malabago, 50; saging-saging, 40; rattan, 30; balok-balok/tui, 20; sagasa and malatangal, 15 each; pagatpat, 10; and dungon, mayoro, pedada, pototan-lalaki, tabigi, talisai, dapdap and alipata, from one to five each.

Waterbird species - their number and common names - were also documented, as follows: chestnut manikkin (maya), 40; Philippine glossy starling (kulansiyang), 40; common egret, 25; olive-backed sunbird (tamsi), 25, black-naped oriol (antolihaw), 15, and black-spotted dove (tukmo), 5.

Exequiel Barillo, protected area superintendent, said the documentation was done using the transect walk method of collecting a detailed data of the different resources present within the BMS site by brisk-walking at around 5:30 a.m., when most of the wildlife are still present in their respective resting places, and ended at 8 a.m.

Another was the conduct of the field diary method, wherein the community monitoring group (CMG) observed the same resources that were present in the site but in a more detailed way, and incorporated this in their report of daily routine activities in the protected area.

Still another method was the focused group discussion, which was done by the BMS team, together with the CMG of barangays Landing, Misom, Tugas and Sinian, and the patrol guards assigned at the PA, where they presented their daily observations including their assessment on the habitat of the area.

Barillo said the photo documentation method, which anchors within the coordinates of N 8038'35" latitude and E 123038'9.3" longitude, was also done to determine and assess any changes on species composition through time. (PIA-Mis. Occ.)