Believe it or not, the future of Boracay Island, the country’s top tourist destination in the municipality of Malay, Aklan province, may, in fact, depend on the survival of one particular species: bats.
Bats, the flying foxes or fruit bats and their small cousins, the insect bats, might as well be declared as Boracay’s flagship species, because of the important role they play in tourism and nature conservation.
Besides white sand beaches and pristine waters, Boracay is known to attract local and foreign tourists because of bats that thrive on the island. And there are several species of them: the flying foxes or fruit bats that hang out on tall trees and their smaller cousins, and the insect bats that dwell in caves.
Bat-conservation advocates belonging to the Friends of Flying Foxes (FFF), a not-for-profit organization, recently added its voice to the increasing clamor to save Boracay Island, strategically by protecting and conserving bats and their natural habitats on the island paradise.
The group through its president, Julia Lervik, underscored the importance of protecting and conserving Boracay’s fruit bats, and threw its support behind the ongoing campaign of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to save the island’s unique biodiversity.
In an interview via social-media platform Messenger on March 16, Lervik said their group is alarmed by the declining population of fruit bats on Boracay.
FFF is a group of volunteers composed of island residents, wildlife specialists and returning visitors interested in the preservation of one of the many treasures of Boracay—the bats, especially the flying foxes or fruit bats.
“Currently, our focus is to protect the bats and the area they live in. Our specialists are all over the country but come down on regular basis for facts and data [on the bats]. Some members live on the island and gather data daily,” Lervik said.
No to Boracay closure
Lervik, however, said their group is strongly opposed to the plan of closing Boracay, which, according to the DENR, means a moratorium on tourism activities on the entire island for at least a year, starting next month.
“The Friends of Flying Foxes believes you can work on a sustainable plan to restore and rehabilitate the island without such drastic move to close it,” she said.
Lervik added that while Boracay is, indeed, besieged by various environmental problems because of many years of abuse coupled by the failure to implement environmental laws, “it still doesn’t make it right to take away the livelihood of so many individuals.”
“Many [people] have followed the law, why should they be punished by those who didn’t?” Lervik said.
According to Lervik, their group, nevertheless, supports the plan to shut down erring establishments for violating environmental laws, especially those that discharged untreated wastewater into the beach and those that constructed buildings on forestlands and wetlands.
Yes to rehabilitation
“We think that they have to look at the island as a whole and each area should be carefully looked into for healthy ecosystems, and then take the measures to make sure they [are implemented],” she said.
“You can implement the law and protect the remaining forest, coral reefs and make wildlife sanctuaries without closing an entire island, as that will just create different problems. Implement the laws and maintain them. Look into the carrying capacity of the island based on the ecosystem and set a quota per day that can’t be exceeded,” Lervik added.
FFF also recommended the creation of an “Environmental Board” that shall overlook the islands’ ecosystem.
The Environmental Board, she said, should be composed of specialists in various fields, such as marine biology, wildlife and beach forest.
“For any new building or plan, this ‘board of professionals’ should always have a final say,” Lervik said.
According to Lervik, the island brings people because of its natural beauty and wildlife, hence, it is only right to take care of it.
“Make an eco-friendly tourism environment that can be sustained for years to come,” she suggested.
Threatened bat habitats
According to FFF, bat population on the island is dwindling because of massive destruction of their habitats.
“Last June our bats roost site were severely damaged by illegal acts of cutting trees, bulldozing in a supposedly protected area. Those who did that should be charged accordingly based on the Wildlife Act,” Lervik said.
“We think it’s fantastic that finally, the DENR is planning to protect the amazing beach forests of Boracay and Puka Shell Beach, and to create protected forest areas in all the remaining forest of the island, and to declare marine sanctuaries in some areas. We just hope to see it happen,” she added.
According to FFF, the forests of Puka Shell Beach and Barangay Yapak are the roosting grounds—the bedroom of Boracay’s bats.
“Puka Shell Beach is a stunning beauty and home to various inhabitants—sea turtles, monkeys, lizards, birds, snakes and fruit bats, just to mention a few. The forest ridges and hills of Puka Shell Beach and Iligi-ligan Beach in Barangay Yapak are the roosting grounds where the bats sleep, rest, mate and deliver their babies. Thus, it needs to be protected and left undisturbed,” FFF said.
“In preserving the forest ridges of Barangay Yapak, we protect the well-being of our ecosystem and make it possible for future generations to see what Boracay was and is all about,” the group added.
Ecosystem functions
Boracay has three known fruit bat species. They are roosting on trees in the forest of Barangay Yapak.
Boracay also has the smaller bat species, the insect bats, that roost in the caves on the island.
According to FFF, fruit bats regenerate in the forest of Boracay and beyond—including the Northwest Panay Peninsula—by feeding and excreting seeds of more than 300 species of plants.
“Boracay’s water source comes from the forest in the mainland, which the flying foxes reforest. Insect bats, found in caves, keep the insect population on the balance as one insect bat can consume 2,000 mosquito-sized insects in a night,” Lervik added.
A decrease in insect bats population may lead to an increase in mosquitos, which carry diseases, such as dengue fever, Lervik warned.
“We can already notice some of those effects as Boracay did not have [a case of] dengue fever, but now there is a major increase in dengue [infection],” Lervik said.
Lervik added that if the fruit bats disappear, the forests of Boracay and the protected area of Northwest Panay will slowly go, as well.
Mission: Save the bats
The DENR, through its Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB), is on a mission to save Boracay—by saving its rich biodiversity, particularly the bats.
According to the DENR-BMB, bats are keystone species and their protection and conservation may mean salvation for dying forests besieged by destructive human activities.
In a telephone interview on March 20, DENR-BMB Director Theresa Mundita S. Lim told the BusinessMirror that a recommendation was forwarded by the team of experts that assessed Boracay’s rich biodiversity recently—urging the DENR chief, Secretary Roy A. Cimatu, to declare certain areas on the island as critical habitat.
A critical habitat is a portion of land outside protected areas that have known habitats of threatened or endemic species.
Protecting habitats
All the remaining limestone forests on the island where some caves sit are candidates for protection and have been recommended by the DENR-BMB team of experts as critical habitat under Republic Act (RA) 9147, the country’s Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act, or Wildlife Act.
Maintaining a healthy population of insect bats is not only essential for tourism but also to ensure ecological balance.
Bats prey on small insects, including mosquitoes, that carry a deadly virus that leads to diseases like dengue and malaria.
Also recommended for protection are portions of a forest in Barangay Yapak, which is a known roosting site of flying foxes or fruit bats.
Fruit bats are nature’s best farmers. As they feed on fruits, these bats leave feces behind, in effect dropping bits of “fertilizers,” and more important, the seeds of the fruits that would, later on, grow on the forest.
Once declared as critical habitats, these areas will be “off limits” to development projects and other destructive human activities, Lim said.
Under the law, particularly section 25 of RA 9147, the environment secretary shall designate critical areas outside protected areas under RA 7586, where threatened species are found.
“Such designation shall be made on the basis of the best scientific data, taking into consideration species endemicity and/or richness, presence of man-made pressure/threats to the survival of wildlife in the area….” the law said.
All designated critical habitats shall be protected in coordination with the local government units and other concerned groups, from any form of exploitation or destruction, which may be detrimental to the survival of the threatened species therein, the law further stated.
According to Lim, besides declaring certain areas as critical habitats, it is a must to educate the people about the importance of bats, noting that in areas where they feed, these bats are often hunted for food.
Declaring certain areas on the island as critical habitats will not only benefit Boracay, Lim said, but other nearby areas, as well.
“As you adopt measures to protect the flagship species in the area, you should be able to help regenerate and protect the remaining forests. Added value to this is [making] the declaration inclusive. You engage the private sector and the communities to protect the critical habitat and the species,” she added.
According to Lim, besides habitat destruction, hunting bats is contributing to the problem.
Hunting bats for food, she said, must be stopped, because, without the bats, the forests will also suffer.
“We need to underscore the interconnectivity of the ecosystems and the species that thrive therein. We need to emphasize that these species are important to people, too,” she added.