MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has urged the business sector and non-government organizations to take a proactive role in the protection of endangered wildlife in the country through adoption.
“Our economic activities cannot be sustained without the ecological services that animals and plants provide. If extinction is the other side of existence, which side are we going to take?” said Manuel Gerochi, DENR Undersecretary for Staff Bureaus and Project Management.
DENR has launched the “Adopt-a-Wildlife Species Program (AAWSP)” to encourage the preservation of wildlife and their habitat. Interested parties may formalize the adoption by signing a memorandum of agreement with the DENR.
Priority species listed by the DENR for adoption include 21 insects, 53 amphibians, 27 reptiles, 137 birds, 86 mammals and 873 plant species.
Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau director Theresa Mundita Lim said an adopting party can either directly implement a conservation program, engage an implementer, or make financial contributions to existing conservation programs.
There are existing programs for the preservation of the Philippine eagle, Philippine crocodile, the tamaraw and the waling-waling orchid.
Donations made directly to the DENR are fully tax-deductible, as prescribed under Republic Act 9147 or the Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act, and the National Internal Revenue Code.
Lim said the adoption of wildlife species could also form part of the business sector’s corporate social responsibility.
First to participate in the program are CEMEX Philippines Foundation and Conservation International-Philippines that partnered in the three-year project called “Piloting Conservation Stewardship Program for the Protection of the Philippine Tarsier (Tarsius syrichta) in Bohol, Samar and Leyte.”
The Philippines is considered one of the 17 countries in the world with the highest biodiversity.
Several species in the country, however, are in danger of extinction.