Wanted: Donations for Philippine eagle

DAVAO CITY – Wanted: Donors to help save the Philippine eagle.

A lack of funds has apparently hampered the operations of the Philippine Eagle Foundation (PEF) that runs the Philippine Eagle Center (PEC) in Malagos, Calinan, this city.

The eight-hectare center houses at least 24 eagles, including the few that have been bred in captivity like the more famous ones, Pag-asa and Pagkakaisa.

The Malagos center has also been an important site for the required research work on captive breeding as alternative measure to help stop the already fast dwindling population of the Philippine Eagle.

PEF executive director Dennis Salvador said donations have lately come in trickles so that whatever funds available would only be good for immediate needs but not for priority projects.

Among the projects are the planned expansion of the existing Malagos facility and the needed further research work and community outreach campaign in known areas where sightings of the giant raptor were reported.

"And there was not much funds coming from the usual donors lately. Our operation has been limited by this lack of funds," Salvador said.

Corporate and individual donations have sustained the operations of the PEF and PEC through the years. International donors have also pitched in a considerable amount for the continued operations of the center.

However, recent global economic woes have also forced the donors to reduce the amount of their funding commitments, thus affecting the operations of the PEC.

Salvador lamented that the existing PEC area in Malagos is actually not enough to house the eagles under its captive breeding program. Plans are afoot for the purchase of an adjacent five-hectare area for the expansion of the facility.

"Should we fail to acquire the adjacent area for our expansion, there would be chances that the entire captive breeding program would have to be stopped," Salvador explained.

Aside from the 24 Philippine eagles now housed at the PEC in Malagos, the giant raptor’s population has been placed at a little over a hundred in the wild based on sightings by farmers in the hinterlands and forests of Northern and Eastern Mindanao.

The PEF has also embarked on community outreach programs especially in villages within areas known to be the habitat of the Philippine eagle.

"Our community outreach program that includes educating the villagers on the importance of the Philippine eagle to the environment also entails operational funds which sadly we do not have these days," Salvador said.

Research work on the Philippine eagle has also brought PEF personnel to the different forest areas in Mindanao and Leyte where sightings of a number of eagles were reported.

The PEC has largely been credited for producing the first eagles bred in captivity, Pag-asa and Pagkakaisa, in 1992 and 1993 respectively. Both eagles are now housed in large adjacent cages that give them enough room to move around.