Concern aired over declining bird’s nest industry

EL NIDO, Palawan - The edible bird’s nest industry in this province continues to decline. Current harvest of the nest, the main ingredient of the highly priced "Nido soup, " is now down by 65 percent compared to 1961 data.

The industry’s decline has been attributed to overharvest, compounded by the lack of a program to sustain it, according to the Ecological Society of the Philippines, a leading environmental group.

The nest is actually the dried saliva of the swiflet (Collocalia fusciphaga Outstalet), locally known as "balinsasayaw," ESP president Antonio M. Claparols said.

The bird abounds in El Nido and in nearly all the islands of Palawan. Usually, a swiflet couple weaves together a whitish (considered class A type) cup-shaped nest in preparation for breeding.

A class A type nest costs P100,000 to P120,000 per kilogram in Manila and can reach as high as P400,000/kg in the international market. Historical records show that wealthy Chinese had been consuming the nest as early as 1600. They even travelled across the globe and high seas in search of the rare commodity.

Aside from possessing nutritional and beauty tonic properties, the nest also has medical uses. As claimed by Chinese traditional medicine, it can cure asthma and other respiratory ailments such as bronchitis and sinusitis; and can prevent colds.

Claparols said the alarming decline of the edible nest industry in Palawan is due to biophysical, institutional, and socio-cultural factors.

The biophysical factors include unstable climatic conditions, presence of predators, and alteration of the bird’s natural habitat owing to conversion of forestlands into agricultural uses. Institutional problems exist because of uncoordinated conservation and preservation efforts, as exemplified by the absence of cooperatives or organizations concerned with the industry.