Haven for Man and Nature

I have long heard about the wonder s of Danjugan Island, an uninhabited marine and wildlife sanctuary in the Sulu Sea, three kilometers west of Negros Occidental. A recent visit to this pristine island revealed a true haven of natural beauty.

In his usual t-shirt and khakis, Gerry Ledesma, the man responsible for transforming Danjugan into a protected sanctuary, met me at the airport in Bacolod, capital city of Negros Occidental. We headed for Bulata, the coastal barangay in Cauayan town some 175 kilometers south of Bacolod, which is the take-off point for Danjugan.

There was a heavy downpour midway through the two-hour drive to Bulata but the weather cleared up by the time we boarded a motorized dinghy for the 20-minute crossing to Danjugan, specifically towards a coral ruble and white sand beach clearing on the western side of the island dubbed Typhoon Camp Beach. The Camp was to be our base for the next two days.

My first sight of Danjugan, set as it was against a steely silver afternoon sky tinged with soft hues of red and gold reflected in the clear, clean seawaters surrounding the island, took my breath away.

This is sheer magic, I thought, while I stood barefoot on the beach, sand cool to my feet, as I took in a sweeping view of land and sea. The island was enveloped in stillness; then suddenly, I heard a trill, followed by the sound of wings.

Ledesma pointed to an avian acrobat gliding gracefully through the sky. The white-breasted sea eagle stretched its wings as it flew from its aerie atop a tall tree behind Typhoon Beach Camp. Beaming, my host says, "Look, it came out to greet you."

About 1.5 kilometers long and half a kilometer wide, Danjugan is not a particularly big island, but it is with lush tropical forest cover, five lagoons, beach and mangrove forests, seagrass beds and coral reefs. Altogether, these ecosystems host a plethora of living organisms which include the aforementioned endangered white-breasted sea eagle, one of a pair that has been breeding on the island since the mid-1970s. There are also at least 68 other bird species, tabon scrub fowl, nine fruit and insect-eating bat species, and over 20 butterfly species.

Ledesma also relates that some 600 fish species belonging to 139 genera, including snapper, grouper, napoleon wrasse as well as the endangered giant manta ray and whale sharks can be found in its waters and surrounding reefs. Dugongs have been spotted and dolphins are a common sight in nearby Cauayan waters, a migratory path for whales.

Of at least 244 sclerectinians (hard corals) found in its coral reefs, 20 species are considered rare. In these reefs have been observed such commercially important marine invertebrates as spiny lobsters and giant clams, of which a threatened species–tridacna giga–is the subject of a re-stocking program undertaken in collaboration with the University of the Philippines’ Marine Science Institute.

At least 17 mangrove species can be found in Danjugan’s coastal and mangrove forests where equally endangered coconut crabs have been sighted. The beach on the island’s western side are known nesting sites for hawksbill and green chelonia mydas turtles.

Extensive survey of the coral reefs around Danjugan by the United Kingdom (UK)-based Coral Cay Conservation (CCC) found these to be as diverse as Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. For instance, studies done in only two kilometers of reefs in waters around the island have yielded 190 species and 73 genera of corals. Contrast that with 80 genera of corals found in the Great Barrier Reef’s 1,600 kilometers and that gives you an idea of how truly amazing Danjugan is, particularly since there is belief among marine conservation experts that many more species of coral have yet to be identified in this sanctuary.

Since the early 1990s, Danjugan’s treasures have been introduced to participants in a Youth Marine and Wildlife Camp organized for children 13-16 years of age living in local coastal communities. During summers, kids from mostly urban areas in other parts of the country also go to Danjugan to join their local counterparts in the Camp. They are taught, through lectures and interactive exercises, marine and wildlife conservation. A version of these learning sessions has been developed for adults from local government units (LGUs).

Ledesma, from an old Visayan family whose passion for the sea and its bounties have been nurtured over long years of scuba diving, first explored the waters around Danjugan in the mid-1970s. "I’ve been diving since 1974," he relates, "and it was in these waters surrounding the island where I had my open-water training."

Clear-blue seawater and a diversity of aquatic life, including stretches of beautiful coral, caused Ledesma and his dive buddies to become regulars in Danjugan waters. Eventually, they came to lease from its original owners a tiny portion of the 42-hectare island where they could rest in between dives. That spot is now known as Typhoon Beach Camp.

Over the years, since Ledesma first plunged into Danjugan’s depths, much of the marine resources in the area have been impaired by typhoons, frequent forays into these waters by big fish trawlers and dynamite and cyanide fishing by former workers of a copper mine forced to resort to fishing after the firm, a major Philippine copper exporter operating in Cauayan, closed in the 1980s.

Uplands erosion as a result of strong typhoons slamming into Negros Occidental in the past have also caused siltation in the waters, ravaging coral reefs around Danjugan. Typhoon Beach Camp, for instance, is so-called because portions of what used to be the Camp’s pure white sand beach is now covered by pinkish coral ruble.

In the mid-1990s, alarmed by the rate of degradation in Danjugan’s waters, Ledesma, who by then had become something of an environmental warrior–he is also head of Negros Forests and Ecological Foundation, Inc.– sounded an alarm.

Also at that point, the original owners of Danjugan were poised to sell the island and there was real danger of it becoming a commercially-run resort development for mass-tourist consumption. Ledesma was desperate for a way by which the pristine quality of the island’s resources could be conserved. The island was for sale, and if he had the resources to buy it and protect its treasures, he would have. But he didn’t have such funds available.

"Then and now, there is no grant window in the country accommodating land purchase," explains Ledesma. Fortunately, a colleague working with Fauna Flora International directed him to World Land Trust (WLT), a UK-based conservation charity concerned with protecting threatened habitats around the globe with access to funds from donors worldwide.

He relates, "At that time, WLT had just purchased thousands of acres of endangered tropical forests for conservation in Costa Rica and Belize, a country in the Caribbean coast of Central America. The Trust took a look at Danjugan and thought it was comparatively small and easy to raise funds for. So, we were able to do a project with them."

Thus was born the Philippine Reef and Rainforest Project. The Project became the initial major activity of the Philippine Reef and Rainforest Conservation Foundation, Inc. (PRRCFI) put up by Ledesma and other trustees including cousins from his mother’s side of the family, Junie and the late Nicholas Lizares in 1994.

"Still," says Ledesma, "project funds came in trickles. We approached the Land Bank (of the Philippines) for a bridge loan, and they issued us one, the first ever environmental loan approved by the Bank." Particularly cited by Ledesma for this milestone achievement were Land Bank vice-president Stella Chua Yusay, who championed his cause, and then Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Angel Alcala.

Danjugan was purchased from its original owners in 1994 and in 1995, the first of CCC’s volunteers arrived on the island. The non-profit organization trains and sends out volunteer teams to survey some of the world’s most endangered coral and tropical reefs. Largely financed by the volunteers themselves who pay to participate in these expeditions running from two to over 12 weeks, CCC was created in 1986 after a team of English university students and professors went to Belize to study the effects of fishing and tourism in the world’s second largest barrier reef.

Over a period of three years, CCC sent some 1,500 volunteers to Danjugan. The sheer number of volunteers who have been there has made the island and its surrounding coral reefs the most intensely surveyed in the country to date. Substantial results have come out of comprehensive and high level scientific work done by CCC’s volunteers and scientific advisers.

In February 2000, the Philippine Government declared the reefs surrounding the island as the Danjugan Island Marine Reserve and Sanctuaries (DIMRS), the first of its kind in Negros Occidental and the Philippines’ first marine protected area resulting from private sector initiatives.

Earlier, in 1997, an announcement declaring Danjugan as a new marine reserve in the world was made by the Royal Geographical Society London during a special reception in London marking that year as the International Year of the Reef.

Further recognition of Ledesma’s persevering work in Danjugan and the CCC volunteers’ own invaluable contributions towards transforming it into a MPA was achieved when the DIMRS was accorded the Best Managed Reef Award by DENR, the Department of Agriculture, the Philippine Council for Aquatic and Marine Research and Development and the State University’s PhilReefs newsletter in 2001.

Praises were heaped on both Ledesma’s organization, PRRCFI and CCC for their "exemplary collaborative conservation efforts in protecting the exceptionally rich coral reef surrounding Danjugan Island."

Beyond the accolades however, the struggle to sustain efforts in protecting this fragile sanctuary continues. Bank loans made for the purchase of Danjugan have all been paid and CCC volunteers have moved on to other environmentally critical sites in other parts of the world.

Meantime, grant money from the UK enabling PRRCFI to organize the development of DIMRS and its management board, the forming of Bantay Dagat (Sea Watch) Councils to patrol the waters of the marine sanctuary, the launch of alternative and complementary livelihood projects, ongoing conservation education and coastal resource management training are drying up.

On its own, Ledesma’s PRRCFI has redirected its focus to a new phase–self-reliance. The Foundation is encouraging the local government with direct jurisdiction over Danjugan to make good its commitment to contribute a portion of its revenues for the DIMRS. "We have advanced so much of our own funds already for the sanctuary and it’s high time the LGU gives its share," says Ledesma. Also, the Foundation is set to implement plans for a Danjugan Island Nature Tourism Project (DINTP), earnings from which will go to coastal communities in the project site and sustenance for PRRCFI.

The project will create nature tourism in Bulata, with Danjugan Island as nucleus. PRRCFI’s by-laws underscore that only 10 percent of the island will be developed. Most likely, such activity will be limited only to Typhoon Beach Camp, which is intended for high-end nature tourism. Only a maximum 25 people at any given time will be allowed on the Camp because of the sensitivity of endangered wildlife present in that particular spot.

In the mainland, plans are envisioned for the creation of the Bulata Eco-Village which will have a training center for biodiversity conservation, coastal resource management, livelihood and enterprise activities, a fisherman’s wharf, produce market, ice-plant, meat/fish processing plant, and a nature tourism facility intended to accommodate a larger number of visitors, among other plans.

Under the limited tourism project, scuba diving will be allowed in Danjugan’s clear aquamarine waters, affording enthusiasts of the sport the chance to see the spectacular coral reefs which continue to impress even the most seasoned, well-traveled diver.

A minimal fee will be collected from entrants into Danjugan’s protected waters and a fee of P2,000 has been set per dive. Really a miniscule amount for a view of a truly living underwater treasure in one of the most natural resource-endowed places in the region!