With the current state of our world today – a raging pandemic, forest fires, illegal logging, illegal cutting of trees, and illegal wildlife trade – the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in Region 6 is strictly implementing Republic Act No. 9147 otherwise known as the Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act.
As part of various ecosystems, wildlife keeps the balance in nature’s processes of food web and ecosystems’ chain.
Thus, the DENR field offices often conduct releases of wildlife back to its natural habitat. One of those are from the Community ENR Office of Boracay which recently released a juvenile Olive ridley sea turtle in the sandy shores of Puka Beach in Boracay Island.
The marine turtle was recorded as the first incident of turtle species to nest and release in the area since the Hawksbill sea turtle and Green sea turtle recorded in the past years.
The Provincial ENR Office of Iloilo also released to the wilds a Reticulated Python (Python reticulatus), a Philippine serpenteagle (Spilornisholospilus) and a Eastern grass owl (Tyto longimembris) since 2021.
Those rescues and releases of wildlife are proof that people are becoming more aware of their importance and the role they play to balance our ecosystems.
But not all are good news. There was one White-throated kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis) that was rescued in Cadiz City but died a few days after. The cause of death was attributed to stress since the bird wastrying to find a safer place to hide. Staff of CENRO Cadiz learned that some people tried to shoot the bird.
“Hearing the numbers of wildlife rescues and releases in the region is one of the many reasons why the DENR is doing its best to protect them. This is the proof that there are still people who wanted to preserve our natural resources, and we commend them.We however wanted to echo the call to those who may be unaware, to please do not shoot the birds or other animals since all of them play vital roles in our ecosystem,” DENR-6 Regional Director Livino B. Duran said.
RA 9147 is an act providing for the conservation and protection of wildlife resources and their habitats, appropriating funds therefore and for other purposes. (DENR-6)
